9:59 PM

Alexa

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“Tell me, girl, what’s your name?” I said nothing; instead I fought to break the bag that I was in, to escape to freedom. “Girl! You belong to me now. Tell me your name.”

“I don’t belong to anyone.” I snarled. My captor paused, and I froze, suspicious and frightened. I heard the click of a door, and suddenly I was sprawled on the ground. The man that had taken me from my home began to shake me out of the bag.

“Here, as a token of our partnership, I give you this. It’s an alloy of silver and gold, embedded with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, any jewel you could think of.” The light blinded me, and I squinted at the circlet that he presented me. It glowed softly in the moonlight. Wear me, it said. Wear me and all your worries will be gone. Suspiciously, I snatched the crown from the man’s hands and put it on my head.

The first thing that I was aware of was a sharp pain in my right arm. That stupid throwing knife may not have killed me, but it had scored a long gash on my arm. Someone was cleaning it – a boy, probably, for he was not as gentle as my sisters had cleaned my cuts when I was a girl. I’d probably lost a lot of blood; I was dizzy and weak. Damn that madman. At least, now that I was free, I could help stop his insanity…if anyone trusted me, that is.

And the crown! The crown that has stolen my freedom. My pretense of unconsciousness slipped, and I twitched. The hands cleaning my wound froze. There was no point in pretending now; slowly, I opened my eyes.

The tints of red in the corners of my vision had vanished. I was really free. The young man observed me cautiously. He had spiky black hair, and brown eyes. For a minute, we only stared at each other. I did not move, and neither did he.

“Are you expecting me to sit up and try to kill you?” I asked. He blinked.

“…yes.” He admitted. He still did not move.

“Relax, man. Destroy the damned crown if you will, but I’m not going to attack you. Unless you attack me first, but that’s beside the point.” He glanced at the crown, but remained frozen. “And let me heal myself.” I focused on my arm, willing it to heal, imagining the skin to close up, and the muscle underneath to come together as if nothing had happened. The teen’s sharp intake of breath revealed that the crown had not stolen my white magic after all.

“How’d you do that?” He asked.

“White magic. Nullified under the crown.”

“The crown…?” He glanced at the crown again, and an expression of hate skittered across his features.

“Robbed me of my will. By the way, I’m Alexa.” Finally, he relaxed.

“Stephen.”

“You were headed for the East town, weren’t you? Allow me to accompany you.”

“But-” Stephen protested.

“I know they’re out to kill me. You’ve seen that from my gash, right? Well I don’t care. I’m going to stop the madman, with or without you.” I interrupted.

He conceded.

Both of us weak, one from hunger (I could hear his stomach complaining) and the other from blood loss, we sluggishly made our way towards the East town. The first person I saw was pale blond-haired one that I’d nearly killed last night.

5:14 PM

Stephen [2]

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The comforting sounds of the forest faded to silence, and I unwillingly opened my eyes. I’d dreamed of a black-haired girl, watching the destruction of my town. In her hand was a flaming arrow, and atop her head a golden crown.

Only the whistling of the wind warned me; I threw myself to the ground, and an arrow struck the bough I’d been sleeping on. I spun to face my attacker – and stopped.

She was bleeding badly, her right arm cut open. She stared at me with lifeless eyes, black hair blowing in the breeze, bow in hand. In her left hand was another arrow, and a shining circlet sat on her head. It was the girl from my dream.

Lightning fast, she nocked her arrow and loosed it. I rolled to the right. Why was she attacking me? And how was she even able to hold the bow? Another arrow struck the tree next to me. She was injured, so her aim was off, but how was she able to string it in the first place? Her right arm was torn open, she couldn’t possibly have the strength to pull the bowstring and–

Oh. She was left handed.

Before she could nock another arrow, I tackled her to the ground. The crown rolled off to the side, and suddenly she went limp. Why wasn’t she fighting? Cautious, I glanced at her face. She was unconscious.

The crown clattered as it came to a stop, and I stared at it. I hated it. The urge to destroy it nearly propelled me to abandon the girl in search of a tool to do so. But I stayed with her, and examined her gash.

5:38 PM

Valerie

EDIT: I'm not posting another until I get some sort of response. kthx

The first thing I did when I woke up was bang my head. Ow. High mats and low ceilings do not go well together. Outside, I heard someone yelling and the twang of a bowstring, followed by scuffling. Wary, I grabbed my sash and dashed outside, ready to face anything. Well…anything that didn’t have to do with thinking, at least. My head was still throbbing.
“What are you doing?” A girl yelled. An ember landed in her pixie-like hair, and she hastily smothered it. I followed the girl’s gaze to another girl, struggling fruitlessly to free herself from the grasp of two teens. I paused. Great. Thinking. Who was doing what? Who was she yelling at? “You almost burned down the whole town!” The girl, who I presumed was the culprit, seemed not to hear. She continued to struggle valiantly. A smoking arrow caught my attention. It lay off to the side, its stone head still faintly glowing. Stone…? How did stone catch fire? I decided not to think about it. My mind wasn’t functioning completely. I made a note to lower my mat later.
“My master commands it,” she said mechanically, “and so it shall be done.” Her eyes, the color of cocoa powder, seemed lifeless…soulless. A powerful gust sent long black hair flying into one of the boy’s faces; he coughed and spat out what he’d just inhaled. Her struggling intensified. Working as a team, the two boys managed pin her to the ground, and one of them sat on her back. Still, she struggled, like a flailing fish. I decided to help and held down her legs, for she’d been kicking the shorter boy.
“What’s your name?” The shorter one asked. He had black hair, cropped short, and brown eyes. He might have looked similar to the girl, but his skin was darker. The taller one, holding down her arms, had brown, almost black hair, slightly longer than the other’s. He had other brown eyes as well, and was only a little tanner than their prisoner. As she struggled, I noticed a circlet sitting on top of her head.
“My master commands it,” she repeated, “and so it shall be done.”
“What’s with the crown?” I asked. “Take it off.” The taller boy reached for the circlet.
“NO!” The girl roared, throwing off all three of us in a surge of strength. When I looked up again, she was fleeing towards the north part of the island. Without thinking (my brain still wasn’t working) I ran after her. The other three followed.
Although she wasn’t very fast, she kept a steady pace. I maybe could have caught up with her, but I managed to trip and fall flat on my face. Today just wasn’t my day. The two boys went on ahead, tailing her, but the other girl stayed behind.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” I said. “Let’s keep going.” I could barely make out the two boys in the dense forest. “Before we lose them.”
We seemed to run forever. I was perfectly fine with it, but I could see that the other girl was not. We slowed to a jog and kept going. The taller one was slowing down as well; the shorter kept going, trying to keep pace with the girl until she tired. But she did not.
The sun was starting to set, and we were far enough into the forest that trees were all we could see in all directions. We’d lost her. The taller boy had given up and walked back to the two of us; it took a minute for the shorter to join us. It was too late to go back, and we were all exhausted.
“I still want to catch her.” The shorter one said unhappily.
“We’ll probably see her again.” I remarked. “It was like she was hypnotized or something.” The other girl had started a fire after clearing out a space, and we lapsed into an awkward silence.
“So…” The taller boy said. I chuckled nervously. “I’m Seth.”
“Valerie.” I replied.
“Bryan.” The other boy added.
“Masako.” The girl was tending the fire, coaxing it to grow a little larger. The fire cast orange flickering shadows on the vegetation around us, giving the illusion that the foliage was moving. I caught a glimpse of something that was definitely not a shadow outside of our little ring of light. A figure was holding a bow and nocking an arrow.
“Duck!” I hissed, and flung myself down. Seth, Bryan, and Masako followed suit. Not a second after I’d uttered the word, an arrow struck the tree trunk behind me. My sight had saved my neck. Quite literally. Quickly, I took a throwing knife from my sash and launched it towards the figure in the darkness. A soft gasp followed. Masako blanched, and the knife fell to the ground. The figure turned and melted into the trees.

12:27 PM

Stephen

**NOTE** the story is divided up on where the point of view switches. hence the title. guess whose point of view it is.

The smell of smoke and burning flesh woke me. Instantly on guard, I opened my eyes and took in my bearings. Red, orange, grey, black. I closed my eyes again, hoping that it was a dream, but I knew that the smells were not a product of my imagination. Warily, I opened my eyes and looked around. I’d chosen to sleep in the trees on the outskirts of town that night; I’d gotten into a fight with my parents. It may well have saved my life.
I could see clear to the other side of town…what was left of it. Our wood buildings had burned easily, with its inhabitants burning just as well. A few small flames poked up from the mess here and there, consuming whatever flammable things that had survived the initial inferno. Something moved, and instantly I tensed, ready to run. What if it was the person (or thing?) that had destroyed my home? What if…what if…
As my imagination ran unchecked, the object of my speculations raised its head towards me. A chill ran through me as I realized that it was my little sister. She was badly burned, but still alive, perhaps the only survivor other than myself.
“Stephen!” She cried out. Immediately, I hopped down from the trees (why hadn’t they burned?) and ran to where my ten-year-old sister lay, careful to avoid any small flames. “Stephen!” She cried. “There were all these flames, and suddenly our house was falling. I tried to call ma and pa, but...but they…they…” she trailed off. I knelt next to her. “They didn’t wake up.” She whispered. “And there was this girl, she…she was just standing there, wearing this crown, watching. And in her hand was…” She struggled to speak. “In her hand was…”
My sister gasped her last breath in front of me.
At first, all I could hear was the crackling of the remaining flames. I stared at my sister, uncomprehending. A dull roar slowly began to drown out everything else. Slowly, I stood up and looked around. Blackened wood lay strewn everywhere, sometimes concealing the burned dead bodies of the families that had once lived in the small town that now lay in ruins. My mind wouldn’t accept it. I was the sole survivor. The last one.
I had to get to the East town. Who knows, whoever or whatever had destroyed my town would try to take on the larger, more populated East town. I spotted my bonehandle knife among the wreckage and managed to remove it without getting burned. Its handle was a little blackened, but that was fine. I started to leave, but stopped and turned around.
My little sister stared at me unseeingly. She was badly burned, burned to the bone in some places. I could not find our parents among the fallen timber. I’d have to bury her alone.
As gently as I could, I extracted her body from the debris and carried her with me as I walked southwest towards my destination.

Animals slowly began to appear as I entered the forest. Birds, snakes, small rodents, wolves… The predatory birds, the snakes, and the wolves made no move to attack the rodents. When I was here, they coexisted in peace. Far off in the distance to my right, a great mountain rose up, the heart of the island. The towering rock was my guide as I lost sight of the carnage behind me.
I’d almost forgotten what I was going to do with my sister when I came upon a small clearing in the trees. Free of roots, the little clearing was only about as long as I was tall, and half as wide as it was long. Perfect for burying a body.
My companions left me, and I began to dig. Only the wolf stayed to aid me. My stomach complained from a lack of breakfast or lunch, but I stubbornly kept going. Golden sunlight filtered down through the trees, dappling the ground as I labored to dig a trench for my sister. For what seemed to be the longest time, I worked to create a proper burial for her.
Finally, when the sun was close to setting, I lay my sister in the trench I’d dug, murmured a few prayers, and began to push dirt into the trench. My companion had long since left to hunt, but to my surprise, came back with a rabbit. Once we’d buried the body, I sat down, exhausted. I was too tired to even eat. Gradually, I slipped away, into a dream world where the town was still perfect, that of yesterday.


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8:35 PM

Prologue

“Tell me, girl, what’s your name?” The man said to the struggling bundle he carried on his bag. The bundle continued to struggle silently. “Girl! You belong to me now. Tell me your name.”

“I don’t belong to anyone.” The bundle retorted. The man stopped only to open a door. Once he’d entered the building and locked the door behind him, he threw down the bundle and took out a sparkling circlet.

“Here, as a token of our partnership, I give you this. It’s an alloy of silver and gold, embedded with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, any jewel you could think of.” He shook the trembling girl out of the bag, a girl of maybe fifteen, and presented her the crown. It shone in the moonlight, enticing her to accept the gift. Suspiciously, she snatched the crown from the man’s hands and put it on her head.

Suddenly, she stopped trembling. All feelings of suspicion and hate on her face vanished, replaced by a blank stare. The man smiled.

“Girl. What is your name?”

“Alexa.” She responded tonelessly.

“Alright, Alexa, from now on, never, ever take off the circlet, and protect it by all means. I am your master, and you will obey my orders.”

“Yes, master.” The man chuckled.

“Finally, the island shall be mine…”


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7:39 PM

Who's interested in reading a story?

Yeah.
Read the title.
kthx.
commentplz.