Lucas Ryan Versus - Madison Daniel Page 0,1

thick to even make out a shadow. With that awful thought I clutched the wall behind me and waited for the pain. Just then the black maze lit up everywhere in a snap, as if someone had flicked the light switch on. Great, I guess I’d have front row seats to my bloody demise. I just can’t win!

Quickly, my eyes pulled together and focused on the mass of scales and claws that seemed frozen by the light. From the floor to the dripping ceiling was rows of teeth and hate filled eyes. They belonged to what looked like a thousand twisted serpents. All of them intertwined like a woven anaconda that heaved with one sickening breath. A thousand horrors wrapped in a morbid bow of fangs and saliva. Their mouths all buzzed with rage as they grimaced in place, paralyzed by the light. What was happening?

“Lucas!” she called out.

“Sophia!” I gasped, as her surprised face appeared behind me in the sheen of the wall. She seemed to be on the opposite side of the wall with her palm pressed against it. It was like looking into a window.

“Get down!”

“Are you all right?” I asked, ignoring her order. She shook her head in a mess of brown tangles and pressed her hand against the wall harder. The determined face of my twelve-year-old savior seemed to change in front of my eyes. She looked so much like her older sister, Olivia. The Weaver sisters. Both of them had dark brown hair that hung past their shoulders, though Sophia’s was a few curly inches longer. They shared the same big brown eyes but for some reason Olivia always hid hers behind colorful contact lenses. Blue or violet were her go-to colors. They were extremely close with each other. The thought of them made time fall away. For a split second I missed home. I missed my friends. I missed my Xbox. But most of all, I missed Olivia Weaver. Lead singer of the all-girl rock band, Sister Red, and the one girl I’ve had a crush on since grade school. Who was I kidding, it was much more than just a crush. She was my girlfriend.

“Lucas, duck!” Sophia screamed. From around her fingers came a high-pitched hum. It emitted from the special rings I had given her. The Jynshee Rings, thirteen unbelievably powerful bands that when worn together, offered almost unlimited powers. Sophia had twelve of the thirteen bands in her possession still. The thirteenth ring was lost, for the moment. Together the jewelry was the stuff of legends. Super powerful, and unimaginable. Well, at least they used to be. Since being trapped in this other dimension, their impossible power has been running on empty. I wish I knew how to fix them. If only we had some kind of owner’s manual to help us with them.

Sophia closed her eyes and pushed harder. I spun around to the floor. The spaghetti swarm of serpents squirmed in place as if they knew what was about to happen. Their panicked shrieks became deep and guttural.

I covered my head and screamed, “Do it now!”

Sophia unleashed a sonic wave filled with golden light that shattered the wall between us and rushed into the knot of demon snakes. They all melted away into liquid ash that smelled like burnt tires. It made me gag a little.

“Lucas, hurry! I see a way out!” she yelled, over her shoulder as she ran down a new corridor. Her sporty sneakers carried her swiftly and barely gave me a time to catch up with her.

“How did you find me?” I asked, running alongside of her.

“I didn’t. You found me,” she huffed, as we rounded another corner in the maze.

“Huh?”

“I woke up in a dark room one second and the next, I was staring at you through the wall…like one of those two-way mirrors. You know, the kind where you can see from one side but the other side seems like a normal mirror,” she said.

“You woke up and I was suddenly there? Weird.”

“Yes.”

That’s when it hit me. “Holy moly…he led me to you…” I mumbled, and stopped running. The mysterious light-carrying shadow man I was following earlier. He brought Sophia and I together.

“What? Who did what?” she smirked.

“The Dark Beacon…the last beacon we were told to find.”

“Huh?” she wearily asked.

“I was told to find the three energy signatures, or beacons. My magical tattoo and I are the first beacon. You and your rings are the second beacon. The shadowy figure that has