I stared at Athena Grey in a mix of disbelief and fear.

“You have to be joking” my jaw dropped. “I’m not anyone’s saviour; do I look like Jesus Christ to you?” I gestured to my conspicuous lack of nails through my hand and feet.

“You are to lead the Aides to war against the Wraiths” Athena shrugged. “You need to be initiated before they reach you.”

“You expect me to believe that I’m some magical Saviour who can stop a race of shadow monsters, when if what you say about Mr Argus is true, I couldn't even stop one?”

“You haven’t been initiated as an Aide yet.”

“What do you mean ‘initiated?’”

“You have to be transformed. Born again. Released from the containment of one form, just like I have been” Athena Grey had a strange look of longing in her eyes.

“Which begs the question. What are you anyway?” I gave her the sternest look I could when I was really quite scared by her ever changing eyes.

“I am an Aide. We are an ancient order formed at the beginning of humanity to fight the Wraiths. We initiated if found to be worthy and freed from our fragile human bodies to a much more durable immortal form. We wield weapons from the Vault which choose us of their own accord and slay Wraiths in the quest to find the three Saviour’s of humanity.”

“And they are?” This was like some Dan Brown novel.

“The first lived long ago and shares your name. The second saved the world in the Biblical days and you are to save the planet from the Wraith God.”

“If I catch your drift, you are talking about Noah, Jesus Christ and I.”

“I am.”

“You're God damn crazy!”

“I am no such thing” her myriad of eyes grew hard.

“How do I even stand on the same lines as a guy who built a giant boat and saved every animal on the planet and a man who could heal the dying and walk on water?”

“You are about to save the world in a war. Noah and Jesus both succeeded and failed at the same time in their missions” Athena Grey looked me up and down with eyes that seemed to see right through me, I shivered.
“Which means?” I definitely had to be on something, nobody could imagine a story like this in their wildest dreams. Then again...

“Noah saved the animals and people with the ‘Ark’ which was his weapon.”

“A boat was his weapon?”

“Literal interpretations are never correct. Noah’s Ark was really a blade by which he offered humanity salvation, by casting a spell that washed away the entire world’s Wraiths-The evil people” Athena Grey was still calm.

“And Jesus?”

“His weapon was Faith.”

“As in the belief of humans gave him power?”

“Sort of. Jesus’ weapon Faith was actually the task of creating an organisation of ultimate good and belief. The Church. In its original days it was a place of the people. During the Middle Ages it lost sight of its true goal and began to empower itself and only in the last hundred or two years has it turned to the people once more, but people’s fate is waning and by extension, the Wraiths faith in their leader, the Wraith God grows.”

“What is the Wraith God?” I was so confused I had to know.
“The Wraith God is the first Wraith who ever existed; parallel to a being of ultimate good was one of ultimate evil. The Wraith God.”

“So you're saying God has some evil twin?”

“Yep. Choose to believe in the Bible or not, but a being you call god exists and parallel to him is the Wraith God.”

“Oh my Lord” I inhaled, shocked.

“Do you believe me now?”

“N. O. You're most definitely a hallucination” I turned to walk out; Athena Grey stepped in front of me.

“I’m real and so is the rest of this” she told me.

“No you’re not and neither is the rest of this.”

“Noah I’m real and I’ll prove it” Athena said.

“How?” Her lips hit mine in an instant and a million images flashed through my mind. Of ancient wars and warriors and floods and monsters. “Jesus Christ” I muttered.

“That is an Aide ability called ‘Lip Learning” Athena replied, her multiple faces shifting as always.

“Wow” I blinked.

“There are three sentient creatures in this world. The Persons or mortal humans, the Aides or immortal humans and the Wraiths or dark humans. Aides and Wraiths have powers which most would call magic. ‘Lip Learning’ is one of the most basic of powers we Aides learn.”

“What are some of the others?”

“‘Mind Merging’, ‘Soul Searching’, etcetera” Athena Grey answered.

“‘Mind Merging?’” I looked at her.

“Two minds becoming one. Two Aides can use it to empower themselves. Using ‘Mind Merging’ another Aide could send their mind and spirit into my body and strengthen it or vice versa” Athena said this like it was nothing.

“So what’s ‘Soul Searching?’”


“’Soul Searching involves opening your mind to everything around you and then focussing your mind on them to see into their soul and see if their spirit is one of darkness, light or dusk.”

“Dusk?”

“The grey area between light and darkness is known as dusk it’s the category that most humans fit into. Neither good nor evil” Athena Grey sat down onto my bed. I sat down beside her.

“If this is all real than that means you're immortal” I gave her a questioning look.

“Yes, I’ve actually lost track of how long I’ve been alive because I’ve lived so long” Athena smiled at me. “This is the face of an immortal” she pointed to her ever changing features.

“My God and you want me to become one of you?” I couldn't imagine myself living forever with a face that never stayed the same.

“Yes and once you become one of us you shall have to begin training for the war against the Wraiths. This will mean that a clone of your mortal form will have to take your place in the real world as you will no longer be able to appear normal to ordinary humans. You will appear as I do to you. With a myriad of faces and features that never remain the same and a strong, immortal body” Athena stared down at herself. “But to yourself you will look like you do now.”

“What a lonely life it must be, to live forever, but separated from the rest of the world” I mused to myself.

“It is” Athena blinked sadly as though tears were about to run down her face. None did.

“Oh I’m sorry. I didn't mean to...”

“Be ready when I say to move” she ordered and then with one sad blink she vanished into a rain of golden light.

“Wow” I breathed, that was amazing. The front door creaked open and I suddenly remembered the blown apart bathroom door. Gee, I thought. That’s gonna be a fun explanation. Sorry Mum and Dad, a crazy girl with ever changing features blew up the bathroom door with a magical sword. “Hi ya!” I ran out to greet my parents inconspicuously, one problem though; the two people at the door weren’t my parents.

“Hello” a tiny, rat faced man said. His partner, a man the size of two horses standing on one another’s shoulders or so he appeared stared hard at me.

“Hi” I looked at him. “What are you doing in my house?”
“We had reports of a commotion. Has anyone else been the house while you've been here?”

“No. I tripped over before. Maybe that was the ‘disturbance?’”

“Tripped over?”

“I knocked a table over and swore a bit” I must have looked so suspicious, but he seemed to buy it.

“Sounds like the report we got. Come on Jenson, we’re wasting time and kid try to be more careful in future.”

“Will do sir” I shut him out and was left to wonder the reason that the keyhole had scorch marks in it.



Sunday passed without any activity. Then when Monday breezed around I was in the bathroom when I had another unexpected visit from Athena Grey.

“Hello Noah” she said from behind me. I jumped, spun around and hurried to do my fly up.

“I think I just had three heart attacks at once” I gasped. She twirled her ever changing hair around one finger. “So what do you want?”

“There has been an order from high in the echelons of the Wraiths to kill you” she spoke bluntly and without emotion.

“Oh joy!” I replied in mock delight.

“Shut up Noah” she ordered.

“So what's the plan?” I inquired, worried that any minute another boy might appear and bust me with some freaky girl.

“You have to die.”

“WHAT!!?”

She rolled her eyes. “Not you as in you you. You as in you.”

“You lost me at the first you.”

“A clone of you has to die. If a clone of you dies they’ll be satisfied.”

“And what will my family think when a giant monster kills their son, huh?”
“The Wraiths will disguise it from the general public and you will probably be said to have died in a car accident or something.”

“That is probably the stupidest load of...” A sound echoed outside. Athena vanished and I walked out, doing my best not to seem worried about my impending demise. In front of me stood a shifty looking man, with a tiny rat like face. Oh God I thought. He stared at me with his tiny little eyes and I knew right then and there what he was doing here. He was here to kill me....