And then. Twin bolts, composed of nothing but dazzling brilliance, were loosed from the sky. They shredded the wet lumpy blanket of cloud, like a pair of giant luminous cat claws being raked through clothing, reducing them to grey threads unraveling in the clearing sky. The bolts zigzagged through the depleting raindrops with remarkable accuracy, like dancers. The clearing sky their stage, the breaking clouds their rising curtain. They would flutter, flurry, fly before twirl, spiral and fall down to earth with supernatural force. A booming thunderclap exploded in the sky, snapping Hayden out of his descriptive daydream back to reality 'RUN!' a voice, the same voice, commanded from within. Hayden scrambled to his feet and began to run just as the bolts obliterated the ground he had been occupying. The entire street was blinded by a scorching light as a shock wave erupted, sending him and the thugs flying in all directions. The ringing in Hayden's ears stopped as he got to his feet a minute later to survey the damage. It was like chaos, in its volatile tangible form, had been detonated in the desolate ally. All the rubbish bins were knocked over, causing some of the bags to split on impact and bleed decaying detritus, some of the smashed cars had even caught fire, their alarms blaring, but he saw no people. 'Where have I gotten myself lost...' he thought aloud as he walked through the chaos. He picked out movement on the edge of his vision, the thugs too seemed to be looking around them in complete bewilderment and disbelief, too preoccupied to notice him. The destruction was unimaginable, the lack of people scared him. He looked up at the sky, calm and tranquil like undisturbed water. No clouds, nothing hinting to the storm which had produced those thunder bolts, 'No' he thought, "thunder bolts" wasn't a strong enough word to convey the power, grace and destruction they expelled with every movement. With their crisscross manoeuvres that pierced the ominous veil of cloud, there dazzling brilliance which had illuminated the ink soaked sky or their seismic impact which had ruptured the ally and created a smoke engulfed hole where Hayden had been lying. Wait. He looked to where he had been standing and gasped, catching the thugs attention, there really was a hole. A crater about four feet wide and a couple feet deep. He felt his face blanche, his stomach somersault and knees buckle. He had been lying there, right there, where the bolts would have struck him, making him... He couldn't finish his train of thought instead he felt his legs give and collapsed on the butchered street, again, as the thugs advanced on him. Only the crater and a couple of feet on Hayden's side kept them apart, kept him alive. He saw their brown no yellow eyes glint with the anticipation of the kill, saw the exposed parts of their pale skin stretching tighter and tighter around their bodies as if trying to dissolve into the bones which jutted out and saw them lick their teeth the way predators did before feasting on their prey. The voice inside him stopped buzzing and humming and went quiet, sensing the gravity of the situation. The leader spoke, in the same garbled English 'We ate you now, cannot you let wed the impure'. All three abruptly span on the spot producing a cloud of brown smoke which shrouded them before disappearing, reveling their actual form. Three lanky pale blue skeletons. With yellow stones for eyes and mouths that hung open like kitchen draws filled with blunt knifes. The same warped look of amusement flickered across their dead faces. 'This doesn't add up'  Hayden thought. The storm, the lighting, the thugs turning into skeletons and the voice which chimed in with useful yet incoherent advice going quiet, none of it made sense. But one thing he was certain of was that he was in a deep pile of shi-. Just as the skeletal freaks were about to bridge the gap, a confetti of feathers burst from the hole; filling the air, making the skeletons back away from the hole cautiously. The feathers weren't normal. They caught the light like broken glass, shattering it into a multitude of colour. Saturating the ally in flecks of rainbow. Two figures emerged from the crater, a man and a woman, but they too seemed different, alien. Hayden could cleary see the distinct human features: two eyes, hair, a nose and mouth, arms and legs. But something wasn't quite right, they appeared pure, almost angelic, like they hadn't been corrupted by the inescapable evils of the world. They were white with skin that glowed with warmth and kindness. Muscular and lean but they didn't appear menacing instead they had an air of majesty and authority draped over them like a king's robe. They stood side by side dressed in simple white tunics with a silence suspended between them which communicated more then words ever could. Then they saw the three skeletal freaks and stopped. Hayden felt the silence expand, extended and expand until all six of them were smothered in it. Nobody moved. The aliens just stood there eyeing each other. Gauging their strength, like two alpha males, daring the other to move first. An eternity of stillness passed before a thought crossed Hayden's mind, 'What am I still doing here?'. He had no answer, but that didn't matter. His legs began to whirr, his arms pushed him up and he burst from stillness into movement, an all out sprint. He only took one adrenaline fueled step and the aliens exploded into action, he felt a gust of warm air push him to the ground, landing on his hands and knees. More of the same warm air was stirring, screams, cries and wails filled the air. Punctuated with beats of wings, swooshes' from arrows being released and clangs from swords missing their targets.  Hayden turned his head trying to sneak a peak of the action 'No, stay still' was barked at him. From two voices. One of them came from within but the other from outside, sounding close by. He suddenly became aware of warmth behind him and a shadow cast over him. He turned his head a fraction to the right 'Still boy, keep still!' the voice sounded urgent, he could feel the intensity of the situation increasing. More swooshes', clangs and beats of wings. All of a sudden the warmth disappeared and the shadow retreated. He turned around and saw, saw... Angels vs demons.  A scene of armageddon, only this was real. The skeletal freaks held bones, metal bones scratched and scuffed testifying they weren't amateurs in battle. Their movements more limber then there lanky build let on. They dodged what seemed to be light, yes light; slowed rays of golden sunshine which disintegrated on impact. Fired from the man's bow, the man who soared on wings with the same light shattering feathers. The skeletal freaks jumped and swung their bones but couldn't reach the man, their efforts became frantic. Hayden saw the man take expert aim and fire a slowed ray of light, it smacked one the skeletal freaks square in the chest and disintegrated on impact. The freak staggered backwards, clawing at the ray of light which was no longer their and fell. The man released two more slowed rays of light, for good measure, both disintegrating when touching the fallen skeletal freak who stopped writhing on the ground. The woman appeared from nowhere. She land right behind the two skeletal freaks who turned just in time to see her give one mighty beat of her light shattering wings. Warm shimmering air rushed towards the freaks and held them in a fiery embrace, Hayden watched them drop their weapons and squirm as they spontaneously combust. The woman gave another beat of her wings and the air became still, the fire stopped. The skeletons joined their "leader" and fell to the ground, dead, before disintegrating into the cracked tarmac. Hayden had no idea what he had just witnessed, he didn't care. Before he could make a doomed effort to escape the man land right in front of him. He didn't need to turn around to know the woman was behind him. He could feel the familiar, and know he knew deadly, warmth spread across his back. 'What now, what now' he thought. Don't worry you are safe, they have answered my call for help. All, is well. The voice within spoke calmly. Before he could even try to understand what he'd been told his entire body was overwhelmed with a sensation of pure energy rushing straight through him. A sensation so immediate, so powerful, so alive he blacked out.

 

Hayden eyes flew open the moment he gained conscious. He was sat in a chair in a dark room, the only light came from the rays which slipped through the closed curtains. Hayden had to squint to make out the features of the room. It was spacious but bare except for a chest of draws in one corner and an empty silver tray on top. The wallpaper puzzled him, he wasn't sure if the low light was playing tricks on his eyes but it looked like shadows drifted across it in a macabre dance, it sent chills down his spine. Know that he thought about it he'd been feeling a strange vibe even before he regained conscious, he was sure it was this vibe that had forced him wake. He felt as if the room was in conflict with itself, the soft warm rays of light where being pushed back by a cold, lifeless force. Even the dark wallpaper had slivers of golden light which the shadows seemed to move away from, Hayden had overlooked. But now he took another quick look around the room, searching for any details he missed. The only weird thing he found was the ceiling, a design was carved into so intricate it he couldn't make sense of it but he knew it was important. He began to stand determined to uncover more secrets when felt something tugging his right hand. All this time Hayden had been transfixed by the left side of the room he'd never looked to the right or, more importantly, next to him. His fingers were laced with another set of fingers. They belonged to an arm which retreated to a bed and underneath the covers, he assumed, was the rest of...well he didn't know. He tried getting up again but the fingers gripped him even tighter and pulled him back down. 'Okay' he thought, whatever  was holding him didn't want him to go. He began to panic, he'd been so busy studying the room he'd forgotten to ask some basic questions. Where was he? What was he doing here? How long had he been here? How was he supposed to get back home? What was holding onto him? A torrent of questions flooded his mind. The fingers laced through his own had been the shock Hayden need to get him to think seriously. Unfortunately it had worked to well, his breathing became irregular and shallow. Was he hyperventilating? Well he did feel a bit light headed, like his conscious was a helium filled balloon slowly slipping away. 'Master! Sir! Focus, you can't lose concentration know. It would be unimaginble for you to fail!' The voice within urged, but even that sounded muffled and far away. His breathing became faster and shallower. Three minutes, or a day, maybe a year, why not five months or eleven eternities. All he knew was that he'd been breathing like this for too long. His thoughts were jumbled and incoherent, his lips and arms and legs and his whole body tingled, spots began to dance in front of his eyes. Somewhere in his subconscious he knew this wasn't right, he knew that you could get a bit dizzy from rapid breathing but this was something else. His entire body was tingling with a cold, numbed slow feeling which worked its way towards his heart. He knew the room was doing this, leeching his life away, soon he be as cold and lifeless as the force in the room. His muscles began to spasm and his train of thought was derailed as his subconscious floated out of his mind, his eyes started to darken. Then the hand laced through his own began to squeeze his. Hayden felt streaks of warmth light race through his cold body. Like the first rays of light to escape over the horizon and burning the black starless night into a glowing sunrise. With ambers and oranges and pinks and crimsons and blues. That's what was happening to Hayden. Deaths clammy grip was being shaken of his body. Hayden stopped dying, his mind shaken by his near death experience. He would have died if not for the the hand he was holding. He had to find out who it belonged to. He pulled off the covers.