THE DARK-ONES

John woke up with a start. His mom was kneeling beside his bed, looking at him with a worried look on her face.

John knew what was wrong. "The fire has come?" he asked.

"Yes, hurry," his mom whispered.

John knew about the fire, and the Dark-Ones, but his parents had never told him why the Dark-Ones were after him. The Dark- Ones were always on their way, using a fiery method to catch their victims. But John didn't know when they would actually come.

"Do we have to leave right away?" John wanted to know. "How close is the fire?"

"We must leave now!" Mom was always the worried one. "Your father is already set to leave. Get packed." Then in a lower tone she said, "The Dark-Ones could be here any moment."

They got ready but before they could leave the fire was upon them. Bright blazing f lames eating up their neighbour's house. Heat beating at his face, John got ready to leave.

Then a new voice broke in. "You three better not move a muscle! We've got you now!"

John turned around slowly and saw three men in black blocking the doorway. They were armed with knives and had hatred blazing in their eyes.

MAGI-MONO

John froze. He didn't want these men to attack. He was pretty sure that they were some of the Dark-Ones. If they attacked, it would not be a fair fight. Three of them with knives against two tired adults and one fearful kid.

The fire was on their house already. Snapping, popping and blackening the walls. It was altogether way too hot! The men had blocked the front exit and the fire was blocking the back exit. There was no way out.

The fire had come closer, venting out any other thought in John's mind. He needed to get out, and fast! A few seconds more and the fire would engulf him. Bright f lames leapt up in front of him, blinding him.

Then his dad spoke. "What are you doing here and why won't you let us leave our house?" He said it to make the men think they had trapped the wrong family.

"You are lucky you aren't dead yet! I really want to attack but we are under orders."

The first man shouted, "Oh you be quiet Larry. You'll give too much away!" He changed his tone and said, "At least Grangillion is doing well."

The man on the left smirked. "Have you even told him why he is the victim?" The smirk grew as he continued. "You let him live without knowing, you Magi-Mono!" John didn't know what he meant by Magi-Mono, but it was true that they didn't tell him anything about that. "Maybe it is best that I don't know," John said, trying to sound brave. But he definitely didn't feel it.

The fire was surrounding them. John couldn't stand the heat one second more! His skin was peeling and he was choking because of the thick black smoke.

"Do you surrender?" asked the man in the middle. "Will you come to our palace?"

"Never!" John's dad yelled, furrowing his brow. "We are going in."

John felt his arm being dragged into the fire. He knew it was the only way out but he didn't think it was such a good idea to go straight through the fire.

Then John tripped on something on the floor and fell face down in the f lames. He had terrible pain in his left arm and he couldn't get up. He felt the tongues of fire eat away at his skin.

MOST TERRIFYING

John's mom and dad, Catherine and Dave, had just jumped through the back door when they realized that John had fallen.

He sat there, unmoving. The fire was licking all over his skin.

He was in a trance-like state, staring off into nothingness.

His eyes were shining in the light of the fire and his right hand was illuminated and glowing.

"Oh my," Catherine said in a hoarse whisper.

Dave just stood there, gaping in awe.

John looked peaceful sitting there but his eyes and hand were astonishing. The fire had engulfed him but that wasn't why Dave and Catherine were worried.

John didn't know what was happening, but they did. The most terrifying thing someone could possibly go through.

HIS RIGHT HAND

John sat there in the fire. He saw a f lash of light. Then another one. Red, green, blue, yellow. There were more flashes, coming closer, closer. Then he saw what they were attracted to. His hand. His right hand was glowing, pulsing red.

He had no idea what was going on. The burning sensation was gone. It felt rather, peaceful. He closed his eyes, not knowing what to do. He suddenly felt different, but a good different. Like his life had just changed, like he himself had changed.

Then he felt a sharp pain. He couldn't pin-point it. It was coming from everywhere, inside his body, even from the air itself.

The fire was still burning but he could no longer feel it. His skin wasn't even affected.

He had to get out!

He couldn't see a thing. The f lames were way too bright. He still couldn't get up. But he had to!

Then John had an idea. It might be painful but he had to do it.

He summoned up all his strength and leapt. With all his momentum behind him, he flew right though the fire and through the doorway and he landed on his dad's face.

"Aaaahhrr!" yelled his dad.

"I'm so sorry!" apologized John.

"It's not your fault John."

"What do you mean?" asked John. Then he noticed a black mark on his dad's face. "What happened?"

"It's not your fault," his dad said again. "It's your hand's fault."

John looked at his hand. He touched it. It was hot but just like in the fire, it didn't burn. It felt peaceful. "What's going on?" John asked in an unsteady voice.

"Calm down," his mom ordered, but in a nice soothing tone, "we can explain."

But there was no time to explain because right then the three men in black burst out of the house, looking meaner than ever.

KNUCKLE-DUSTER

"No escaping now! We will attack if you do not come to our palace!" said the first man.

"Are you going to listen to Andrew or are we going to attack?" added the one named Larry, though John could tell that Larry was just trying to get permission from the leader to attack.

"We will never go to your palace!" Dave yelled. "We would rather die!"

"Then die you shall!" the third man yelled back. The three men advanced, knives raised. "There will always be more of us!" He let out a shout and four men appeared behind them.

"Dad, what's happening? What is happening?" asked John.

"So you didn't explain. Typical Magi-Mono!" said Grangillion. "Now he has no idea what to do!"

"That's right but I do know one thing," John said.

"What?" demanded one of the men from the back.

"It has something to do with my hand." John raised his hand for all to see. It was still glowing. There were now more sparks surrounding it.

"Oh my," whispered one of the men from the back. John saw that those men didn't have any knives or other weapons, but they still looked just as deadly.

Grangillion whispered something to Larry about "the Second Ishmiel" and "his power." But John didn't understand a thing they were saying. Larry shooed Grangillion away.

Catherine and Dave started talking to each other in hushed voices, but John only heard bits and pieces of their conversation.

"What. ... do?"

"We should. ... now. ... his...."

"I think. ... tell him now."

".... John. ... surrounded. ... Dark...."

'They're talking about me!' John thought. 'Probably about my hand.' He kept listening.

"He could. ... one"

".... possible but. ... help ..."

"Dad. What should we do?" asked John in a worried tone.

"We have decided to tell you everything, even though this may not be the best time, as we are surrounded by Dark-Ones," his Mom told him.

"You will tell him nothing!" one of the men from the back yelled. He ran up toward her and punched her in the stomach. She fell to the ground, wincing in pain.

John saw that he had a knuckle-duster. John looked around and saw that they all had knuckle-dusters. These weren't normal knuckle-dusters. These had spikes!

TIED UP

John froze in horror. His jaw went slack but then he sighed in relief. The man who had punched his mother did not have spikes on his knuckle-duster.

Without warning, two men came up and tied John's hands behind his back, taking extra care not to touch his right hand.

Dave leapt at one of the men and pinned him down. John felt a knife at his throat and the man named Larry yelled, "cut it out. Your son's life is at stake!"

Dave reluctantly let go of the man and stood up. "Put your hands up and don't move a muscle! I'm the one with the knife at his throat!" Then he turned to Grangillion. "See to the woman!" When Grangillion obeyed, Larry yelled to the other men. "You four get the man!"

The four men grabbed Dave and tied him up. Larry pushed John down and bound his legs together and his arms tight at his side.

Andrew came over to Larry. "I'm the leader of this attack so I give the orders. Though you did say exactly what I would have said."

Larry just scowled.

Andrew continued the orders. "Bring the woman to the palace. You know what to do with the other ones."

'Larry wants to kill me right here, right now,' thought John. 'He is definitely the most vicious of the group.'

Even though John was afraid for himself, he was even more worried about his father. The four men with knuckle-dusters were not treating him very nicely. He had already taken a bad hit to the head and the men in black were tying him up very tightly with ropes. The ropes were biting into his skin.

Larry put a gag over John's mouth. He was now tied up almost as tight as his dad. The pain was incomparable. It felt like hornets stinging him all over his body. The ropes were so tight that it felt like he had no skin at all. With the knife digging into his throat, he was losing consciousness quickly. His sight was blurry and a gag was covering his mouth, making it hard to breathe, but he was still determined.

"Stop it!" he yelled, although it sounded more like "Smoffic!"

Even so they understood him. But they definitely did not do what he wanted them to. One man came over and gave him a very hard kick to the head.

John looked around and the scene was horrible. With his vision increasingly blurred, he was slipping out of consciousness quickly.

He struggled to get out, but the ropes, and Larry's grip, made it impossible.

His mom was being carried ruthlessly away and his dad was being bound to a pole. "Set the death traps!" Larry yelled, happy to be giving orders again. Then he turned to John. "The death traps are timers that work one by one. Any death you can think of can be a death trap. If the first one doesn't work, the second one will. If the second one doesn't work, the third one will, and so on. There is no way to escape all of them. It is impossible.

John had some idea of what was happening at that moment, but his mind just couldn't quite process it in this state.

Then John felt a sharp pain in his back, and all was darkness.

PLEASE EXPLAIN

John slowly regained consciousness. He took in his surroundings; he was tied to a pole. His father was beside him. There was pain, excruciating pain. He was in agony from head to toe.

"You awake?" John heard his dad ask. "I think it's time to explain this all to you."

John managed a squeaky reply. "Y-yes. St-start-t from th-the b-beginning."

John's dad continued. "OK, but prepare for a shock. You are a descendant of a man named Ishmiel. He was a great ruler but there was a mysterious box in his castle." He paused for a moment before going on. "When he opened the box, some weird things happened. Some say the box was magical, but Ishmiel believed that the Spirit of the Lord descended on him."

"What?" asked John, his voice steadier than before.

"At that moment power flowed through him. People say it was magic but it was not. Though it was something like that. It was not

magic as in witches and sorcerers, but the power of God mixed with the power of the wooden box. There is much to tell you in such a short time but I think this is important." With much effort Dave took a very old looking piece of paper out of his pocket. "It is a promise that Ishmiel gave when he was dying." It read:

The bottom of the page was torn off.

They both gazed at the page. Millions of questions f lashed into John's mind. So many, that he couldn't even process them all. He decided on one question that was the most important and would summarize most of the other ones. "What does it mean?" he asked.

"Some of it I know and some of it I am still working on." He drummed his fingers which were just free of the ropes, as if urging himself to go on. "Many in his line will receive a power to be used for good. The Dark-Ones want to destroy all of his descendants. They have at least one of the signs in their possession, which I know of. They probably have more. The reason they are after you is because on one piece of the promise paper it says, 'he will have two parents of the direct line of Ishmiel.'" He looked at John and continued. "They think it could be you. I think they are possibly right."

"Can you please explain what just happened to me?" John pleaded.

"They are the Dark-Ones. They need your mom for reasons that I do not know. They are possibly keeping her hostage as a trap for us to fall into their hands but then again, maybe not, as they set up the death traps for us."

"Look, there are fire-fighters! Get them to come over!" John shouted.

"No," John's dad exclaimed. "There is a force-field around us. I was awake when they were putting it up. It absorbs sound." He shuddered and continued. "Evil magic."

"So is that why we don't have gags on anymore?"

"Yes. They expected you to scream and cry out, so they put a gag on you. They took it off after they put up the force-field. They knew I would not yell to attract attention so they did not put a gag on me."

John also wanted to know why the paper was ripped but he had a more important question. "But what about the death traps? What are they?"

Dave nodded his head thoughtfully. "Just like they said, they are traps that kill. There are many different types of death traps ..."

John cut him off before he could finish. "The man named Larry said anything you could imagine could be one of the death traps. What does that mean?"

"It means what it says. Think of some way to die and they have it as a death trap. They have put many on us but definitely not even a low percentage of all the possible death traps," Dave explained.

John was still confused but he was starting to understand. "I know this is quite random but would they have 'being eaten by a polar bear in the Arctic' as one of the death traps?" John said trying to find something that would not be a death trap.

"Well if that is what they want done then that is what they will do. One death trap could sling you or bring you to the Arctic and they hope you're eaten by a polar bear, or they could bring a polar bear and eat you right there. But that is way off topic," his dad explained.

"So there are death traps set to kill us now?" John chuckled under his breath. "That's encouraging."

"Yes but we will get out." Dave said to John though he did not sound so sure.

John wasn't positive. "But how do you know for sure ..."

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"Was that an alarm?" John asked.

Dave piped up startled, "I remember what one of the men said to me, 'When you hear the alarm you know you only have one minute left to live because the death traps will soon befall you.' I also got a glance at the sheet of death traps and the first one is a hidden blade."

He looked around muttering under his breath. "It should be around here somewhere." Then suddenly he pointed upwards. "Up there!" He spoke softly as if trying not to let anything hear him.

John looked up at the tree to the right of them. Up there hidden in the branches there was a fire burning through a rope that was holding the blade. It would soon break, and they were in its direct path.

DEATH TRAPS

John almost freaked out. Was this really the time he would die? The minute wasn't up yet, they still had time to think of something to do, a plan.

"Dad, we can't dodge it unless we get out of these ropes, but I don't think that's possible, especially in less than a minute."

"I think you're forgetting something."

"What?" demanded John.

"Your hand!" his father replied. "Don't you remember that it was hot? Haven't you pieced it together yet?"

John did not really know what was going on, but he had figured out some things. "So, I am a descendent of a dude named Ishmiel, giving me a magical power."

His dad sighed, "Ishmiel doesn't like people calling it magic. Magic is for evil. But other than that, yes."

"So what do I have to do?" John asked.

"Place your right hand on the ropes and they should burn through. But do it quickly or it will be too late!"

John placed his hand on the ropes, but nothing happened. "What's wrong?" John asked, "Weren't the ropes supposed to burn?"