Lucas Ryan Versus - Madison Daniel Page 0,3

Maybe it would lead us all home.

“Pick it up,” Sophia whispered.

“This is stupid, Lucas! The last thing we need is you unlocking another strange rock with mystical powers. Look where it led us last time!” Felicity cussed, waving her arms around her head. Man, it was so easy to dislike her.

“Felicity, technically you’re the one that wished us here,” Sophia added, with a nervous laugh. She was right.

“Shut up, princess!” Felicity scolded. That was it. She had flipped my angry switch. I turned to her with annoyed grief plastered on my face and was completely ready to lay into her about her snarky attitude when from over her shoulder came a hissing. I stood up and pulled the girls behind me. Standing in the center of our large prison was the shadowed being I had been chasing, the Dark Beacon.

“Lucassssss…” the shadow hissed. Its outline was tall and smoky, resembling a man. I couldn’t see any details along his face, only burnt red eyes. I stepped forward, ready for some kind of answers.

“Are you the one I am supposed to find? Are you the last Beacon? The Dark Beacon?”

With a raspy cackle, he answered, “Yessssssss.”

My forearm started to flicker with gold light again and so did the triangular stone on the floor between my feet. The dark figure seemed to wince from its light.

“Okay…tag, you’re it. Now, how do we get out of this place?” I asked. The floor began to rumble and sway. Not a good sign. I leaned forward and asked again, “How do we get home?”

The shadow leaned toward me and whispered, “Belieeeeeeeevvvvvve.”

Believe? Oh crap, not again. I looked back down at the pyramid below me and swiftly snatched it into my fist. It attached to the contours of my palm and dug itself in as if it were a part of me. The mysterious heartbeat returned, only this time it was in synch with my own. I felt as if we were one. I stared down at my illuminated fist and smiled.

“Ripley, is that you?” I asked, quietly.

The hulking shadow behind me interrupted with a warning, “Lucassssss.”

“What?” I said, not even looking his way.

“Runnnnnnn…”

My eyes stole a look back his way just as the floor began to tear open. “Huh?”

“Run!” the Dark Beacon warned. As he did the floor exploded upward extinguishing his smoky body in an instant. The enormous serpent monster from the maze rolled upward, filling the new hole with its heaving torso.

“Uh, oh.”

Sophia latched onto my shoulder and Felicity began to run in the opposite direction. As she did, another roar ripped through the air and she froze in place.

“What do we do?” Sophia begged, in terror. The beast bellowed again before us and inhaled a gargantuan breath that tugged at our clothes like a giant vacuum. Its teeth grew longer, and thick black saliva spilled everywhere. I held Sophia tighter unable to move my legs.

“Lucas! What do we do?” she screamed louder.

“I don’t know!”

Suddenly, from inside my mind came a calming and familiar voice.

~ Believe. ~

In my head I answered back. Ripley? Is that you? You’re still alive! You’re still with me! I knew it!

~ No time for salutations, Lucas. We only have a few seconds. ~

My secret weapon that lived inside my mystical tattoo, Ripley. The sentient being that was born from the mysterious jeweled stone I had found weeks before in the front office of my high school. This magical stone had bonded with me and revealed hidden powers within myself. It had unleashed Ripley. Cryptically, Ripley had told me to find the Three Beacons the last time we talked. I was afraid we’d never speak to one another again. With hope creeping back in I asked the voice in my brain…

What do I do?

~ All three of you must make the connection. ~

What connection? I don’t understand.

~ Touch the triangular rock in your palm. It’s called a Tri-Stone. When all three of you are holding the stone, make a wish. The same wish. ~

The same wish? You mean to go back home?

~ Yes. ~

“Seems easy enough,” I joked, aloud. That’s when I realized Sophia was the only one still by my side. Felicity had run all the way across the room in a terrified fit. Desperately, I groaned, “Of course.”

The evil serpent bellowed above her readying its final blow. She smacked her fists along the curved wall of the dome and screamed.

“Help! Help me, please!” The monster pulled back its snakelike jowls and lunged forward. At the last possible