Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series)

by Madison Daniel

  ~ Finally, I have been waiting for you to see me. For you to believe. ~

  What are you? I asked without words.

  ~ What are we? ~

  Huh? What the heck are you talking about?

  ~ What are we? ~ It corrected again, a little louder this time.

  Still confused, I gave up on the mental telepathy stuff and asked, “What are we?”

  ~ You asked me, ‘What are you?’ The real question is, ‘What are WE?’ ~

  Its smoky, steel body lifted me toward its brilliant stare and gently back on my own feet.

  “Huh?” I asked, again.

  ~ Believe in my words, Lucas. What are WE? ~

  “Okay...what are we?” I asked, completely lost in the conversation. It quickly circled the room causing the lights to flicker on and off. It coiled itself around my tense body with the smoke still handcuffed to my wrist. Misty shadows pulled from its back in the shape of morbid demon wings. They never fully defined themselves and stayed in the spooky form of shadows.

  ~ WE are the energy. WE are the same as you. Take everything you need. ~

  Its voice serenaded my mind with the tone of a calculated machine or computer. I pulled my hand back up to my face and blew out a puff of air, making the twirling smoke disappear and expose the burning symbol inside my forearm. It burned with vibrant purple light that pulsed in the same timing with the creature’s pupils and crawling electricity, as if we were in sync somehow. As if we were one. Then the timing of the flashes matched my racing pulse. I stood stunned, watching the beautiful color beat in unison with my heart. My hand fell upon its metallic chest just a few inches in front of me and I could feel its heartbeat. It was strong and mimicked mine exactly. That’s when its words finally hit me... ‘What are WE?’. The answer was simple. We were one. We were the same. We shared everything, our thoughts, our fears, our life force.

  ~ Understand? ~

  “Yes. We are the same. We are one. I believe now.”

  ~ WE are the energy. WE are the same as you. Take everything you need. Take everything from me. ~

  I rubbed the flashing symbol on my wrist, calming the racing heart in my chest. A serene peace filled my head even though I had a thousand questions to ask. It loosened its coil around me, slowly.

  “Where did you come from?”

  ~ Inside of you. ~

  “Please, explain.”

  ~ I traveled a long way to be born, to be made. To be what you need. ~

  “Right now I could use a straight answer. Where are you from?” I sounded impatient.

  ~ From far away. From inside of you. From nowhere. From everywhere. There is no real name for where I came from. There is only the truth. ~

  I scratched my head, annoyed. “Okay, what truth?”

  ~ Only that you and I are one. Are WE. ~

  “You’re talking in riddles, making absolutely no sense!” I pouted.

  ~ It doesn’t have to make sense. I chose you because you chose me. You asked what I was...I am what you make me. I am what you want me to be. ~

  Its three menacing tails twisted together in one long curly knot that reminded me of the way the stripes flowed along a candy cane. Quickly, the creature’s colors changed to red and white that spiraled down the length of its body. My mouth hit the floor in utter disbelief.

  “I am what you want me to be...” I repeated the creature’s cryptic words, putting another piece of the puzzle together in my brain. This thing has been growing and changing by MY will, by MY imagination. WE were one, after all. I had spent my childhood chasing and dreaming of dragons and now, I had created one with my deepest and darkest thoughts. I created the creature’s true form, its essence.

  Running a nervous hand through my matted hair, “Why me?”

  ~ Why not? Where I am from only a few of my kind ever find their OTHER. Find their creator. ~

  “Your kind? What is your kind?”

  ~ We are the universe. ~

  “And...” I pushed.

  ~ We are the energy. We need hope to be born. Fear to grow. Dreams to learn. Belief to live. I believed in you, Lucas...my creator. ~

  “I’m the creator...your creator?”

  ~ Yes. What you desire, is what is true. ~

  Its words hit me with the force of a runaway train. What I desire...

  “You mean like...wishes?” I blinked. It nodded, yes. My wishes! Every time I had truly wished in my head for something it seemed to come true. Memories of the past few days rushed over me. Too many coincidences had happened. Too many things I couldn’t explain. When I needed it most, my wishes saved me. A wonderful reality slapped me across the face. Why hadn’t I seen it before?

  “Oh my god! You’re a genie!” I shouted. It flinched from my ecstatic statement.

  ~ I am what YOU make me. If you believe it, I am what YOU desire. ~

  “No way!” I cheered, and tried to slap one of its claws in a misguided high-five. Its flaming eyes watched me, unsettled. “My very own genie!”

  ~ What is a genie? ~

  “A magical being that grants wishes, any wish!” I tightened up at the thought of what my next wish might be. My dream car, a pile of money...immortality.

  ~ Sorry, Lucas, but it does not work that way. ~

  “What do you mean? Why not?” I shrank.

  ~ I make what YOU want reality only if you truly desire it. I have no control over it. It’s just the way it is. If you truly wanted money, then you would have it. All of it. ~

  “Oh.”

  ~ If you desire something with everything you are, I make that desire true. WE make it true. ~

  My true desire. My thoughts became deadly serious as the image of my friends in danger sobered me. Olivia’s ghost appeared, filling me with goose bumps. I found everything hard to swallow all of a sudden. Information overload.

  ~ She’s in trouble. She’s out of time. ~

  “Olivia’s in trouble? Is it General Love?” I asked too loud.

  ~ I am not alone here. ~

  “What do you mean?”

  ~ My kind is always hunted. ~

  “By what? Who?”

  ~ Something that lives and feeds on hopes and dreams. The opposite of me. The anti-energy. The darkness. The end. ~

  “Are you saying we’re in danger still?” I asked, looking up toward the demolished security camera tucked in the corner of the room. My mind filled with the faces of all my friends.

  ~ Yes. ~

  “All of us?” I whispered.

  ~ General Love will end this world. General Love will kill us all. ~

  I closed my eyes not wanting to hear anymore. I wanted to run away. My creature pushed its face closer to mine, connecting with me with only our thoughts.

  ~ He’s especially taken an interest in her. ~

  Olivia. I thought, instantly. I began to shake. We have to save Olivia. Show me where she’s at. Show me how to save her!

  ~ Not Olivia. Her sister...Sophia. ~

  “Sophia.” My hands tightened into fists. Bright white light ignited around them, canceling out some of my creature’s mystical smoke. There was no more time for questions. No more time to talk. There was only one truth now. I had to stop him. WE had to save my friends. WE had to save the world.

  “I wish to see my friends. Take me to them,” I said, through clinched teeth. I wanted this wish more than anything. My creature nodded its head down before me, almost in a bow of respect. Its eyes never looking away from me.

  ~ That’s more like it. ~

  My creature’s torso morphed into a swirling ball of gray mist. Spinning inside was a shiny surface that resembled a large mirror. It settled into a fuzzy picture that came to life with a moving image. An image of the chaos that was about to overtake my friends. Inside this doomsday painting came a fear that chilled me to my core. I was out of time.

  “Oh...no...”

  LEVEL 23: This Is War

  “Please, don’t hurt my friends,” Sophia wilted. Her hands tightly strangled the last remainin
g piece of my missing gauntlet as tears scratched down her cheeks. She looked to the horrifying scene above her head, watching as her sister, my best friends and oldest enemies, dangled from the rafters of the school gymnasium. General Love had strung everyone, but her, up in the air, attached to the roof by some weird and sticky substance like a gooey spiderweb. It oozed black slime and twinkled with green flecks of light. Twenty-feet above the hardwood floor Olivia hung in pain, trying to be strong for her sister.

  “Please!” Sophia begged again, surrounded by the General’s monstrous armed guard. This time they pointed their daggers for fingers and mouthfuls of fangs at her, instead of assault weapons. They shook with powerful bodies, hunched over and growling. General Love watched her with his phantom eyes from across the room. He smiled with the same cocooning black ooze dripping from his lower lip. It disgusted Sophia, completely.

  “Soph! Don’t make him angry!” Olivia warned from above. Her warning only seemed to scare Sophia more, exciting the General and his men.

  “I am not angry, my dear Olivia. Far from it,” General Love said, strolling along the length of the gymnasium floor, playing hide and seek with the falling shadows of my tortured friends. As he passed under each hanging body he gave a wicked glare to each of his prisoners. A personal moment of fear for all his trapped victims.

  Finding a new wind in her lungs, Sophia stepped forward, “Let us go!” Holding the magical token seemed to settle her nerves and fill her with confidence. This new sensation enveloped her young body and she didn’t notice that the gauntlet screen was radiating inside her hands. General Love avoided her silly threats and continued his stalking of my friends. He stopped halfway to Sophia and jerked his head upward, focusing his hateful stare on Dax. Dax hung quiet and petrified, trying his hardest to not show the General just how scared he actually was. General Love pulled his lips together and sucked in a long dusty breath. Quickly, he expelled a jagged icy column of air that crackled upward, reaching for Dax. The force of it spun him in a sickening circle of dizziness that covered his clothes and skin in chunks of frozen crystals. Dax screamed down to the General as if he were dying.

  “Don’t do this! You don’t have to do this!”

  “Of course I have to do this! I want to do this!” General Love laughed in an unnatural, gravelly voice. “This is why I have brought my men, my Hive! This is what I am here for. This is what I am made for!”

  Dax lost consciousness and the General’s guards joined in his celebration of laughter.

  “I don’t understand, why are we here?” Olivia asked, upset. General Love whipped his head around to meet her drained face.

  “I needed you as bait. Your pitiful little friend, Lucas Ryan, has something I need. Something I crave!” his pointed teeth locked together. “It’s the only reason why you’re all still breathing.”

  “Why Lucas? What does he have?” Olivia tried distracting him, as she noticed Sophia and her glowing handfuls of power.

  “Because, he would taste the best!” General Love declared, and continued walking toward Sophia.

  The luminous piece of glass warmed in Sophia’s grip, filling her eyes with hypnotizing daydreams. General Love’s bulky shadow crawled over her.

  “I’m hungry! The Hive is starving! My men and I have waited an eternity for this moment, this feast!” he roared, as thick drool fell from his words in chunks. “The only thing that would have made this entire event better is if the universal Jynshee Orb would have chosen you, my dear.”

  “Jynshee what?” Sophia choked. General Love’s evil stare flared with hate, sending her backwards to the floor. His bubbling black tar skin began to steam.

  “The Jynshee Orb! The greatest power your universe has ever known. Its energy will feed my Hive for eons. Unfortunately, your precious Lucas Ryan has tainted its existence with his own ignorance. I’ll never let him ruin my plans!” He bent down toward her, “And I’ll kill anyone who tries to stop me!”

  “If you knew what the stone was already, then why didn’t you eat it when you had a chance? Why all this pain and horror?” Sophia asked in a mumble.

  “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, because it wasn’t ready yet. Mr. Ryan will rectify that soon enough, though,” he said, with a loud snap of his jaws. “Besides, I find your fear...delicious...”

  Sophia turned her face from his ready to scream, when her eyes caught the same single word typing itself across the small flashing screen between her fingers.

  She whispered to herself, “Believe.”

  From above her, Taylor flexed and strained helplessly, trying to free himself from the binding cocoon. His muscles ached with a burning fever, but he kept trying with his last bit of strength. The alien webbing seemed unbreakable, and he knew he didn’t have anymore time. Sophia was moments away from death, he had to try something else.

  “Enough! Let me down from here and I’ll show you what I am here for. Let me down, General, and I’ll happily try and stop you!” Taylor promised, with his serious eyes. General Love glanced upward, his body filling with a fresh tremor of rage. Taylor grinned downed at him.

  “Tay, no!” Morgan screamed, at the top of her lungs. She began to cry helplessly, angering Taylor even more.

  “Come on, General! I dare you!” Taylor spit.

  With a quick flick of the General’s hand the binding cobwebs disappeared, sending Taylor crashing to the gymnasium floor, breaking one of his legs in the process. Blinding pain traveled through Taylor’s leg and stomach. Morgan screamed again and it echoed from every wall in the gym. Taylor waved to her to calm down as he caught his breath.

  “So, the golden haired bodyguard wants to be the hero...” General Love interrogated. He stepped up to Taylor as he pulled himself to his feet.

  “Always!” Taylor slammed a fist into the General’s stomach with a slushy thump. His attack had no affect on the evil before him. General Love smiled.

  “My turn.” The General scooped up Taylor with a large claw for a hand, lifting him off the ground and closer to his sickening deformed face. Taylor gagged on the smell coming from the General’s mouth. With his sharp teeth dripping black saliva, General Love erupted into a haunting laugh that frightened Taylor completely. The rest of General Love’s soldiers moved in closer, joining their master in his violent fit. Taylor began to pass out from the lack of oxygen. My savior was in trouble.

  “Let him go!” I called from the archway of the gymnasium doors. After watching this chaos unfold from the safety of the cafeteria kitchen, my mystical creature teleported us here, just in time. Stunned and irate, I had seen enough.

  “Lucas!” Roland said startled, from above me. I stole a quick glance at him and then the others, pausing only on Olivia. The sight of her made the moisture run from my mouth and the pit of my stomach awake with butterflies. She nodded toward her little sister.

  “Save Sophia!” she begged. I nodded to her and focused back on Taylor falling limp in the General’s grip.

  Stepping closer, I dared the General again, “I said let him go, General.” He roared violently, slapping his other clawed hand around Taylor.

  “Finally!” He eased himself closer to the cowering Sophia, intensifying his grasp on Taylor. Taylor let out a final gasp of air from his lungs.

  “I know why you’re here! I know what you’ve come for!” I said, absolute. My heart raced in my chest as he seemed to grow bigger in front of me. So did his soldiers. I walked forward, ignoring each of the General’s menacing guards. As I passed them and their demonic claws and faces, they taunted me with growls of hostility. My focus was on getting to Taylor and saving Sophia.

  “I know your secret, General,” I continued.

  “That means you have finally chosen its form. The Jynshee has a body,” he cackled, wildly. I drew in a shaky breath.

  “Yes.”

  “Fantastic...this is my favorite part. All right men, now, we eat!” he announced, to wicked cheers. General Love immediately threw Taylor across the room like a giant rag doll. His
body tumbled along the wooden floor with a thud and stopped just inches before my feet. For a second I was sure he was dead and my eyes blurred over in tears. He slowly rolled over in agony trying to pull his damaged body up, and with another snap of bone, his other twisted leg broke. With both legs broken he fell over in defeat. I knelt down to him, ecstatic that he was still alive.

  “Hold on, T, I can fix you up. Trust me,” I nervously said.

  “Luc, get out of here! You’re no match for him!” Taylor moaned. The sight of his broken legs filled him with gloom. I reached down to his legs and closed my eyes.

  “This time, I got your back, my friend.” This time, I’d be his hero. “I wish you were healed.”

  With a dark flash, smoke escaped from under me, circling us slowly. It shifted in shape, zigzagging back and forth like a robotic snake. As it coiled itself around Taylor and I, he grabbed hold of my arm, tensely. The unmistakable silhouette of my imagined wish dragon, materialized. The entire room fell stunned, stealing all rational thought away from my imprisoned friends.

  As the bones in Taylor’s legs began to pop and snap into place, he marveled out how the pain disappeared and his body filled with renewed strength. He stood up, quickly.