THE RISE OF TERROR
Rijuta Gohil
Harsha.gohil@gmail.com
THE RISE OF TERROR
Rebecca
BOOM! Crash! I groaned and opened my eyes. ‘What did they do this time?’ I wondered as I rolled out of bed. I slipped into my fuzzy slippers and grabbed my wand from my dresser. I quickly brushed my teeth, lost in my thoughts. It had been two years since I had got here. A safe haven for witches and wizards with no place to go. My family and I had a misunderstanding about the friends I had. So that night I had teleported away and had arrived here. In fact most of the kids here were either kicked out or had run away. I sighed as I smiled. It was great living here. Still, I knew that one day I would have to go back and maybe-just maybe apologize to my parents for what I had done. Snapping back to reality, I bounced downstairs. I took my time, knowing that the boys would be frantically scrambling to fix whatever they broke but wouldn’t be able to do it fast enough. I sighed and walked to the source of the noise. My heart jumped as I realized that it was from the armory. I walked in hesitantly. My eyes widened as I took in the damage.
“John, what in the world happened here?!” I yelled. The entire armory was covered in black soot and the roof was broken. I felt something fall from the sky onto my arm. I looked down and saw a rain drop. Of course it had to be raining. I looked towards the two boys cowering behind a cannon.
I frowned and said, “JOHN AND BRANDON… I can see you, you know? Just come out from behind the cannon and let’s sort this out.” Both cautiously walked towards me. I tapped my foot to show that I was losing my patience. They immediately ran to me and stopped about 2 feet in front of me. I took a deep breath.
“Now can one of you kindly tell me why there is no longer a roof for the armory?” I asked. John and Brandon looked at each other.
“HE DID IT!” They both screamed at the same time while pointing fingers at each other. I pinched the bridge of my nose. They seemed to realize that I was not in a good mood and quickly tried to think of something to say.
“Um...we heard a noise in the armory and went to check it out…” Brandon started. He was a 13 year old boy with purple eyes and black hair. He had black glasses. He was pretty tall for his age and was a wizard.
“Yeah and then, we may have, accidently, fired a cannonball through the roof,” finished John. He was 15 years old with a blonde buzz cut and forest-green eyes. He was a wizard as well. In fact, all of us who stayed at this place were witches and wizards. I sighed but decided to let them off the hook since Brandon was like a brother to me and John was my best friend.
“John go check on that girl we found this morning,” I commanded. “If she is awake, come and get me! Brandon, you come with me to check on the magical creatures. I’m letting you off the hook, guys, but I won’t next time something happens.” Both boys visibly relaxed. Then John saluted me and ran out of the armory towards the infirmary. I spun around and started towards the fields where the dragons, goblins, and unicorns resided. Brandon followed. We joined the group of little witches and wizards playing with the creatures. They greeted us cheerfully. ‘THEY ARE SO CUTE!’ I screamed, inside my head of course.
“Hi Rebecca!” said Wanda, a 5 year old girl. I smiled back. Then Brandon and I started checking on each creature individually.
“OOOOOOO!” My head snapped up. All the kids looked towards the infirmary. ‘John I am going to kill you!’ I thought furiously as I gestured to everybody to continue what they were doing before. I thundered to the infirmary. I arrived to see John glancing around in confusion and the door to the infirmary… kicked in. I groaned.
“John...can you tell me exactly WHY THE DOOR IS KICKED IN?” I yelled.
“Well, the door wasn’t opening when I pushed it, Rebecca,” John gulped. My mouth dropped open.
“Maybe because you have to turn the doorknob to open the door!”
“Wait a minute,...there’s a doorknob on this door?”
“Oh my potatoes! John, you been here for at least a month!”
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t know! Please forgive me and….don’t kill me!” John said. I sighed. ‘I’m doing that a lot’ I thought tiredly. I surveyed the room and frowned.
“Where is she?” I groaned, turning towards John. “What did you do?” John looked terrified.
“Nothing, I swear!” he defended. “I heard a scream so I came here as quickly as I could.” I was skeptical but decided to accept the excuse. I turned around.
“Fine, but since you broke the door, you don’t get any snacks for the rest of the day,” I concluded. A look of despair found its way onto John’s face and he fell down dramatically. As I looked down at John, shaking my head, I saw someone stand up from the corner of my eye. John and I looked towards that person simultaneously. It was the girl we found that morning. Immediately John smiled and I relaxed.
“HEYYYYYYYY!” John grinned. “WELCOME TO JOHN OAKLEY’S HAVEN FOR NINJAS (aka JOHFN)!” I frowned and immediately smacked him upside the head.
“John! I thought we agreed that that wasn’t the name of this place! Plus you’re last name isn’t even Oakley. Ignore him,” I said, hoping that I wasn’t smiling. John was actually pretty funny at times. “He’s an idiot!” John put his hand over his heart and faked a hurt look. I turned towards the new girl. “What’s your name?”
She paused before deciding she could trust us and said, “I’m Helia”.
“Hi, Helia. Welcome to the mansion where wizards and witches reside!” I explained. “All of us who stay here have no place to go. We’ve all been kicked out, or ran away. We found you outside the wall. You were exhausted but it was nothing serious. We brought you and our doctor tended to you and now, well, here we are. Do you remember anything of what happened to you before you ended up here?” A dark look crossed her face. I frowned.
“I’m a witch from Mainor,” she replied. “The rest of the world is dead.”
“That’s really funny,” I said, laughing. She shook her head.
“It’s no joke,” she replied seriously. “Here I’ll prove it.” Pulling out her wand, she quipped, “Tranfero Memoros!” The transferring memories spell. Suddenly, I many images rushed through my head. A black creature, literally made out of darkness, killing people, NMPs (non-magical person) running around. All of the images contained chaos. My eyes widened and I heard John gasp. The room started spinning. ‘NO! I thought. My mom, my dad, and my little sister. The whole world wiped out? Just like that? I couldn’t believe it. I sank to my knees. Sure, my family and I had a misunderstanding. Yet, for them to be dead, without ever seeing them again really got to me.
“What happened?” asked John, looking slightly scared. Helia’s eyebrows furrowed as she tried to remember what had happened. John started getting impatient. “What HAPPENED?!”
“There was a creature unlike any other I’ve seen before,” she finally muttered. John and I looked at each other, confused. “I couldn’t tell how big it was or where it came from. We had heard about it. About how it had destroyed other cities. We figured it was probably a tall tale. You know, how it was Christmas a few days ago?” John and I nodded.
Helia sighed and continued, “Well there was this huge celebration. I know it kind of sounds impossible, but thanks to magic, everyone from the entire world was there. We were all having fun and then it just appeared. The Terror, I think it was called. It a-attacked and that was it. The Protectors tried to put up a fight, my mom and dad included, but there was nothing that could be done. One look at its red eyes, and it seemed like you were paralyzed forever. As my dad took his final breath, he told me to run, find survivors, really-just anyone, and try to survive. I had said yes and then immediately tried to teleport out of there.” Helia flinched as a dark feeling washed through the room. Then the whole room became dark.
I yanked my wand out of my pocket and whispered, “Illumina!” My wand glowed brightly and saw both John and Helia’s wands do the same. Both looked terrified and I knew I was too. Then the room returned to normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “Dimos” I said. My wand stopped glowing. Helia and John did the same. Helia had turned pale and was shaking.
“What was that?” I questioned, my voice trembling. Helia collapsed. Both John and I rushed to her. She was still pale and shaking. Yet, now, her forehead was very hot and her body was very cold. She had a fever. John lifted her up and laid her on the bed. We looked at each other, silently communicating with each other. Finally, we both came to an understanding. I ran out of the infirmary as John tended to Helia. Just as I stepped outside, kids immediately bombarded me with questions.
“Why did the world turn dark?”
“What happened?”
“Who screamed?”
“Are they okay?”
Brandon, who was standing off to the side, realized that I needed some space so he shooed everyone back. I opened my mouth to answer when the ground started to shake. A creature emerged from nowhere. It was the Terror.
I dimly heard kids scream as they pulled out their wands to fight. I did the same. I was not going to back down. Kids were shouting spells out, aiming at the creature. Yet, that just seemed to fuel the Terror. I heard a yell from beside me. I turned to see Brandon fall down as a curse hit him. A curse?
I spun around to see Helia shouting curses at kids, killing them one by one. ‘No!’ I thought. Helia was a traitor? No, wait, her eyes were red with white swirls. Helia’s eyes were brown though. Helia was possessed. By the Terror. I came to my senses when I saw Helia aim at Wanda.
“NO!” I screamed. “Shieldo!” An invisible shield appeared between Helia and Wanda. Then I tackled Helia, sending us both flying as the mansion was destroyed and kids were dying. When we landed, I quickly scrambled up, in ready position with my wand. Helia slowly got up, rubbing her head.
“What happened?” she asked. I exhaled. “Rebecca, I need to tell you something. The Terror it was here the whole time!” I turned to stare at her. “And the reason it won’t die is because it gets stronger with feeling of fear and hatred.” I blinked, refusing to believe it. I opened my mouth to say something. BLAST! We scrambled back as the Terror found us and approached us. It smirked.
“This is the end!” it said. I hoped that people had survived and that they would destroy this creature. I closed my eyes. Then I darkness swallowed me whole.
Helia
BOOM! Crash! My eyes snapped open to a dark pit, with one beam of light on me. ‘Where am I’ I wondered. Looking around, all I saw was darkness. Then a pair of glowing eyes. Then another. More appeared. Eyes everywhere. I froze, not daring to move, too scared to move. Tap. Tap. Shuffle. Tap. Tap. Shuffle. Footsteps.
“Who’s there?” I called out. It stepped out into the light.
“Mom?!” I asked as my voice cracked. It couldn’t be. I saw her die with my own eyes. She took a step towards me. She stopped and opened her mouth to speak.
“Why didn’t you help me?” Mom croaked, advancing towards me. I walked towards her. Then I realized something was wrong. That wasn’t Mom’s voice. Well it was, but Mom never used that tone. I peered at her closely. She had a hollow look in her eyes. Wait, was that blood around her mouth? No, this wasn’t Mom. I scrambled backwards and hit something or someone. I spun around. Dad.
“It’s your fault that me and Mom are dead! YOU IDIOT! You shouldn’t be alive!” Dad yelled. I gasped and put a hand over my mouth. It couldn’t be my fault, could it? Unlike Mom-or whoever that was-Dad’s eyes were filled with rage. Wait a second, his eyes. Dad’s eyes were glowing red with white swirls in them. That can’t be. Dad’s eyes were blue.
“You’re not my parents,” I quavered. “My parents aren’t like this!” Suddenly, both Mom and Dad morphed together to appear as it. A nasty creature made out of pure darkness with red eyes and a red mouth. It smiled gruesomely and rushed towards me. I screamed. I saw it’s black teeth, ready to chop me to pieces. It was going to eat me.
“NOOO-”
“OOOOO!” I yelled, sitting upright. A dream. It was just a dream. I closed my eyes, gulping in air as my racing heart slowed down. After I had calmed down, I blinked, trying to adjust to the light. I looked around. I was on a white bed. The room looked like a hospital because there was a row of white beds down the length of the room. There were medical supplies all around the room. Next to me, was a table with a glass of water. I reached for the glass of water. Except I couldn’t move my hand. It was too heavy. In panic, I looked down. I was sitting on my hand. ‘How is that even possible’ I wondered, pulling my hand out from under my body. I took the glass of water and chugged it down. CRASH! I shrieked, dropping the glass of water and diving under the bed next to mine.
“Where’d she go?” someone said. It sounded like a boy, maybe 14, 15 years old. I trembled. Were they here to kill me? Footsteps thundered to a stop right in the doorway.
“John...can you tell me exactly WHY THE DOOR IS KICKED IN?” a girl yelled. She sounded older than the boy.
“Well, the door wasn’t opening when I pushed it, Rebecca,” the boy, who was now identified as John said.
“Maybe because you have to turn the doorknob to open the door!”
“Wait a minute...there’s a doorknob on this door?”
“Oh my potatoes! John, you been here for at least a month!”
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t know! Please forgive me and….don’t kill me!” John said. I heard Rebecca sigh. ‘Who are these people?’ I thought. Curiosity got the better of me and I peeked out from under the bed. Standing by the door of the room were two kids. John, the boy, was wearing a black t-shirt and brown shorts. He had blonde buzz cut and forest-green eyes. He seemed pretty tall, probably at least 3 inches taller than me. The girl, Rebecca, who seemed pretty ticked off, had long black hair and sky blue eyes. She was wearing an orange tank top and black jeans. Rebecca surveyed the room and frowned.
“Where is she?” she groaned, turning towards John. “What did you do?” John looked terrified.
“Nothing, I swear!” he defended. “I heard a scream so I came here as quickly as I could.” Rebecca looked skeptical but accepted the excuse. She turned around.
“Fine, but since you broke the door, you don’t get any snacks for the rest of the day,” she concluded. A look of despair found its way onto John’s face and he fell down dramatically. I stifled a laugh. They both were a funny pair. I figured that they weren’t bad people, and they looked my age, so I got out from under the bed. Both of their heads snapped towards me simultaneously as they tensed up. Okay, that was creepy. Immediately John smiled and Rebecca relaxed.
“HEYYYYYYYY!” John grinned. I couldn’t help but grin back. His smile was contagious. “WELCOME TO JOHN OAKLEY’S HAVEN FOR NINJAS (aka JOHFN)!” Rebecca immediately smacked him upside the head.
“John! I thought we agreed that that wasn’t the name of this place! Plus you’re last name isn’t even Oakley. Ignore him,” she said, now smiling. “He’s an idiot!” John put his hand over his heart and faked a hurt look. I giggled. “What’s your name?”
I paused before deciding I could trust them and said, “It’s Helia”.
“Hi, Helia. Welcome to the mansion where wizards and witches reside!” Rebecca said. “All of us who stay here have no place to go. We’ve all been kicked out, or ran away. Do you remember anything of what happened to you?”
“I’m a witch from Mainor,” I replied. “The rest of the world is dead.”
“That’s really funny,” Rebecca said, laughing. She didn’t believe me. I shook my head.
“It’s no joke,” I replied seriously. “Here I’ll prove it.” Pulling out my wand, I quipped, “Tranfero Memoros!” The transfering memories spell. Suddenly, both Rebecca and John clutched their heads. I could still imagine the images they were seeing, the memories fresh in my mind. Rebecca’s eyes widened and I heard John gasp.
“What happened?” asked John, looking slightly scared. My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to remember what had happened. ‘What had happened?’ I thought. John started getting impatient. “What HAPPENED?!” I cringed.
“There was a creature unlike any other I’ve seen before,” I finally muttered. John and Rebecca looked at each other, confused. “I couldn’t tell how big it was or where it came from. We had heard about it. About how it had destroyed other cities. We figured it was probably a tall tale. You know, how it was Christmas a few days ago?” John and Rebecca nodded.
I sighed and continued, “Well there was this huge celebration. I know it kind of sounds impossible, but thanks to magic, everyone from the entire world was there. We were all having fun and then it just appeared. The Terror, I think it was called. It a-attacked and that was it. The Protectors tried to put up a fight, my mom and dad included, but there was nothing that could be done. One look at its red eyes, and it seemed like you were paralyzed forever. As my dad took his final breath, he told me to run, find survivors, really-just anyone, and try to survive. I had said yes and then immediately tried to teleport out of there.” I flinched as a dark feeling washed through the room. Then the whole room became dark.
I heard Rebecca yank her wand out and whisper, “Illumina!” John and I did the same. My wand glowed brightly. Then the room returned to normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “Dimos” I said. My wand stopped glowing. Rebecca and John did the same. ‘It couldn’t be’ I thought in panic. I turned pale and started shaking.
“What was that?” Rebecca questioned, her voice trembling. The next thing I knew, I saw black.
I groggily opened my eyes to a dark room. All of a sudden, the Terror appeared in it. I ran backwards only to trip and fall. ‘How had it gotten here?’ I wondered. It smiled cruelly. “Wondering how I got here?” it said. “Well, I was actually hear the whole time! Every since you go here. I saw you teleport that day. So naturally I followed you, and here I am. Of course, I didn’t attack immediately. I was weak from the fight before. I needed to feast on the fear, hatred and anger. Now that I am strong, I am going to destroy this place. How about you help me?” My eyes widened as I realized that it was going to possess me. ‘NO!’ I thought. ‘Nev-’
I felt numb. What was going on? I had this sudden urge to destroy. Destroy everything in sight. So I did. I stood up. Next to me was a boy. He tried to stop me from getting up. ‘NO!’ I thought. ‘I am unstoppable.’ I grabbed my wand and moved to destroy him. I had a strange feeling that I should know him but then I pushed that feeling back into heart and got rid of it. I fired a curse at him. The destroying curse. One down, a lot more to go. I calmly walked outside. Then I fired the same curse at the kids there. ‘What are they doing?’ I thought. Then I didn’t care anymore. I was about to curse a little kid when BAM!
I got up slowly, rubbing my head and said, “What happened?” I saw Rebecca lying a few feet away from me. For some reason, when I asked her what had happened, she relaxed. I had to tell her about what I had learned. “Rebecca, I need to tell you something. The Terror it was here the whole time!” She turned to stare at me. “And the reason it won’t die is because it gets stronger with feeling of fear and hatred.”
She opened her mouth to say something. BLAST! We scrambled back as the Terror found us and approached us. It smirked.
“This is the end!” it said. I was terrified. I couldn't finish what my dad asked me to do. This is the end. I closed my eyes. ‘Sorry, dad!’ I thought. Then darkness swallowed me.
The Terror
Victory over the world was my goal. Why? I don’t know. I don’t care. I opened my red eyes. After the fight on Christmas, I had followed a girl, the only survivor, to a place of magic kids and creatures. I hid in the shadows of the things in the place. As much as I hated it, I needed humans to survive so that I could provide myself with energy. Negative human emotions powered me. So right now, my plan was to possess some of them to destroy the others. Then I would keep them locked in a cage, forced to serve me forever. I smiled. BOOM! Crash! I immediately moved to the sound. Two boys were standing in an armory looking terrified. Yes, more fear to feast on. Yum. I smiled gruesomely as I got a bit stronger. Now I just needed a bit more. I went back to the infirmary where that insolent girl was staying. I kept in the shadows. I decided to take a rest and melted away into the shadows.
When I came to, the girl was talking to another girl and boy about Christmas day. I recognized the boy as one of the boys from the armory. After the girl told her story, a massive aura of fear and anger rose. I immediately gobbled it up, not bothering to hide in the shadows anymore. Suddenly, I felt a pain in my side. The insolent kids had lit up their wands. I vanished back into the shadows quickly and growled in anger. That anger soon disappeared as the girl fainted out of fear. I ate the fear as well. Then I decided to possess the girl.
The girl opened her eyes to a dark room. I made my entrance. She took one look at me and ran backwards only to trip and fall. I smiled cruelly. “Wondering how I got here?” I said. “Well, I was actually hear the whole time, ever since you go here! I saw you teleport that day. So naturally I followed you, and here I am. Of course, I didn’t attack immediately. I was weak from the fight before. I needed to feast on the fear, hatred and anger. Now that I am strong, I am going to destroy this place. How about you help me?” Her eyes widened as she realized that I was going to possess her. I swooped down and darkness enveloped her. I left her mind, knowing that my work was finished.
I went outside and immediately when they saw me, the kids whipped out their wands and fired curses at me. I smiled because the fear that they made was healing me faster than their curses were destroying me. I saw the girl I had possessed come outside and fire curses at kids. She was about to fire a curse at a little kid when a girl tackled her. They both flew backwards. Since all the other kids were dead, I just watched their exchange. Then when I thought it was time, I blasted a jet of fear at the wall next to them.
Their heads whipped towards me. I approached them slowly. “This is the end!” I said and moved to capture them. I would lock them up and they would be my servants forever. Finally, the whole world was destroyed and I was the greatest creature in the world. I smiled, planning for the future.
