A Time to Be 7

I turned around to see Kaden standing in my living room, his back to me. Oh no.
"have fun last night?" he said in his monotone.
"i could ask you the same?" i relied with little voice.
"get dressed" he spat.
"how did you come here?" i asked.
"just get dressed" he repeated. I rushed into my bedroom, as i passed i saw his face was a mixture of anguish and something else that i wanted to say was disgust.
I had barely gotten my dress over my head when he burst into the room.
"lets go" he said, not caring that i was partially finnished dressing.
"where are we going?" i asked as he pulled my wrist out of the closet.
After he didnt reply, i had had enough.
"Kaden! Answer me!" i yelled.
He held up a tiny star, shimmering in the sunlight coming in from my open window. The familar trinket was covered in blood.
"kaden, what have you done?" i asked hollowly.
"oh, it was not my doing." he said dangerously as he grabbed my waist so i was so tightly against his chest that i gasped to breathe. The glowing tunnel came into view, yet it was not as it should be. The weak light of the tunnel was glowing a bright crimson and black that washed around us. I closed my eyes and pushed my head into Kaden's chest to keep from screaming. We were julted into the white hall with the long white table. Yet now, it was frightfully different.



Blood covered the room in a liquid fog. I couldnt stop the scream from coming as it filled the room. Bodies lay around me in a gory, aganizing lash. I felt woosy and Kaden held me up as i became dead weight in his hands.
"what happened?" i finally managed to cry. "Kaden, please tell me it wasnt you" i cried into his chest, pulling him down to my face. His was hard and cold, and filled with grief.
"no. " he said finally. "it was you."
My world spun out of control. I dropped to my knees, Kaden,unable to hold me up.
"what?" i sputtered.
"Cerean?" a feeble voice called out to me. Beside me, Alexandria's broken face looked up at me, the eyes swimming with fear and death. I shot up, stepping backwards into Kaden who stood like a rock.
"Cerean?" her broken voice came to me again. "it seems i should have put more faith in you. thank you" she tried to sit up, but only hurt herself more and fell backwards with a hard cry.
"Alexandira! Oh alexandria! what has happened to you?" i cried, a tear falling over her stained robe. I moved closer to her, and removed the robe to reveal a horrid gash in her stomach, flowing with blood.
"Salizar." she whispered.
"but he is dead! i killed him!"
"you killed his assian" she cried weakly.
"he had us all fooled" Kaden said now, appearing at my side. "he sent his assasin in the realms since he can not come on his own power. that is why he stole the magic from you" he whispered.
"what do you mean? how did he have my magic?" i said dumbfounded.
"Cerean." Kaden sighed. "Wense is Salizar"
My head spun. I felt my knees buckle and i sat back on my hands. I could feel the pain rising in me. I felt the mixture of the scene in front of me fade into the one from last night. The feeling of him against me, his cool breath dancing across my skin. The way I kissed him and the sound of his moan in my ear as I arched my back under his intoxicating movements.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. This was all my fault. Now not only was i responsible for all thoes deaths before including my fathers, but now the entire Mastery lay dead across the room.
"no" i said finally. "no, no"i repeated.
"Cerean" alexandria reached for my hand. "he has foolen us all, do not feel responsible. You can save the Power still. Find the Grave, Cerean."
"i am so sorry." was all i could say with the tears streaming down my face, blocking my view of her mangaled body.
"there is not much time, now that he has unlocked the Power and he can at any time enter as anything or anyone" Kaden whispered.
"Find the Grave Cerean" Alexandria coughed up a new pool of blood, making me gag. I cradled over to her again and held her hand. I tried to heal her, force the Power into her, but the light was fading too quickly from her body, her glow gone. She was dieing, and there was nothing i could do.
"i can not save you. You're too far gone" i cried again.
"Just find the Grave. That will save the Power. Find it Cerean."
Kaden layed the bloodied amulet in her other hand and clasped it in her palm, and she turned to him with a faint smile.
"i cant!" i wailed. "I dont even know what i am looking for, let alone how to find it! it is lost. I am not the one to find it! Please dont leave me, Alexandria. I am so sorry for what i have done, i can not bare another life on my hands." i looked back to Kaden, who closed his eyes and bent his head.
"Cerean" she gasped. "it is your destiny" she whispered her last words in a faint hush that sent my head spinning with new images. The room faded into the jungle where the little girl skipped over the damaged tree roots, laughting in the girlish way that i used to.The Tree. The tree was the Grave! It had to be. "it is your destiny to fix it." the girl had said, i had said. It was MY destiny. The Tree was to be fixed. I was to fix the Power, find the Grave.
The fog in my head disappeared as i stood up, moving away from Alexandria's lifeless body, towards the portal to the outside.
"where are you going?"Kaden asked quickly at my new found determination.
"to take back whats mine" i growled. I grabbed my necklace just as Kaden lunged for my arm.
"what are you doing?" i asked
"Your not going alone, not again" he said surely.
"i have to find it alone, besides, you are no longer my Protector, remember?"i shook my arm loose of his, but it was too late and the tunnel already had us both in it with its eerie red and black tiedye of death.
"i should not have done that" he turned me towards his eyes as we flew quickly down the tunnel for the longest jorney i had been on, one into my imagination.
"no you shouldnt have" i snapped.
"it is my fault that you did that" he said, referring to last night with Wense. with Salizar.
"it was my own doing, i am responsible" i cried now, hurridly wiping the embarassing tears.
"i should have told you to stay, to be with me. If i had just done what i had wanted, we might not be in this mess" he moved me closer. "if i had just done this" he said, pulling me into his warm embrace, craddling my head perfectly in his hands as his mouth formed around mine, forcing them to part. His smell of sandlewood and spices danced around me, clogging my senses with delight as he moved my head in his hands, pushing our mouths together.
We were suddenly julted into the jungle, breaking our kiss. He was not beside me as he should have been. I searched for him franticly as i stood up, brushing myself off from the dirt floor. Around me where the fiamilar trees and brush.
"if you can hear me, please help me" i told myself.
I appeared beside a rather large bolder in the cornor by some bamboo stalks. My bright red hair and teal eyes were happily set, waiting for me to follow, giggling all the way.
I led myself through the whipping tree branches and over broken stones and roots. When we reached the clearing, the tree was even more monsterous. the grand root twined in and out of the way, looking more like large pathways than part of the tree. the burnt, ashy bark was begining to peal at my presence. The sun that was shineing through the canopy opened up and brightly enhanced the tree, pulling faster away at the dead bark. Underneath, along the trunk were names written in elegant scroll. My fathers stared back at me and next to it, freshly ingraved was Alexandria's. The names of past keepers of time. I walked up to the base of the tree and turned to ask myself how to unlock the Grave, but i was gone. I turned back to find a hollow or a nook, anything, but could find none. I went to step down, to find another way, but something stopped my as i turned around.



"hello, darling" Wense's cool voice stung against my ears as his brillant smile welcomed me.
"what are you doing here?" i snapped. "how dare you trick me!"
"now, dont be cross. Think of what we have here." his smile growing. "ive come here for what you have. Power. So much intesly focused power." he began moving about the roots and i mirrored him, ever cautious of his hands. "think of what we could do with it together"
"you tricked me!"
"oh now, i never told you a lie. My name really is Wense Harvall. My Mastery name just happens to be Salizar" he laughed lightly as if he were telling an amusing antidote.
"you knew what you were doing, gaining my trust to use my Power."
"yes, but you see it was too much for me" he made a wary face. "i thought that if a mere girl could control it, then i certainly could. But oh, Cerean" his eyes wideened and he bowed slightly towards me. "i must say you are the better man, sort to speak. To be able to harnass that level of Power, raw Power, i couldnt imagine"
"i will kill you!" i screamed back at him, the winds starting to pick up, the sun loosing its shine and a dark swriling purple cloud took its place as the jungle backdrop disappeared with only the tree, hanging above an infinate abyss below.
"you see i thought youd be angry, my love, so i took a little insurance" he smiled and with a snap of his fingers, Kaden now appeared, lying against a root, half-awake.
"you hurt him and i will only kill you more slowly." i threatened.
"you wouldnt kill me. You loved me" he smiled. "think of it Cerean, we could rule the Power together!"
"do not listen to him!" Kaden shouted. A thundering sound shot through him as his scream pierced the wind.
"Stop!"
"think Cerean!" Wense continued, ignoring both Kaden and I. "you would have the power to do what ever you pleased. We could take over the universe, every time to come and even those before it!" he laughed. "with you beside me, we would be instopable. And we could be together" he said, convincingly. I felt myself thinking over the idea. With Wense beside me, ruling everything to come. Time flying by me as i did as i pleased.
"NO!" i shook the thoughts free from my head. "you killed my father, you would kill me!"
"is that what they told you!" he laughed, kicking Kaden in the back, sending another violent prang of pain through him.
"oh, cerean! no, your father took his own life" he said with an eyebrow raised.
"Liar!"
"you do not believe me? take a look yourself!" he moved his hands through the air and suddenly a large rectangle appeared beside us, my father standing on a crowded dancefloor. A dark shadow came over him like in my dream and he was being pulled into the tunnel. A younger Wense was there.
"Tell me where she is, and i will not harm you"
"i will never" my father spat.
"i will take the memory of her from you one way or another, just help yourself and tell me. Regonald, I do not want to harm you, please" he pleaded with him.
"you will never find her." he shook his arms fearfully and suddenly he was down on the floor, slumped to his knees. the younger Wense ran over to him.
"Regonald!" he screamed in actual terror. "what have you done?" he said hollowly as my father layed dead in his arms.

"you see, Cerean, i did not kill him."
"It is lies, its all lies" i shake my head.
"you may think what youd like, but you know i am telling the truth. He killed himself to protect you. I was not meant to kill you, Cerean. Join me. Be with me! think of it, we could go back into time, change things. Your father could be alive again. he could be with you not only in your dreams." he smiled.
"get out of my head!" i shout.
"oh, but you are the one that let me in. you invited me, remember? or should i play a reel from last night as well?" he mocked
He went flying backwards, my Power raging inside me.
"dont do that Cerean" he said breathlessly, floating in the air.
I shot back another, but he caught it in his hand somehow, building up the intensity. "i warned you. fine, you wont join me. you will die!" he threw back the horrible lightening that hit me, sending me back against the tree in a violent crash. The breath escaped my lungs and i felt my body break, then heal itself again.
I stood up, defiant and mad as bloodly hell. My amulet grew a blood red. I pulled all the hate i had into a single blow that sent him flying off the tree into the abyss. He somehow managed to stay afloat in the air, screaming in pain at my Power courseing through him, slowly devouring him.
I went to hit another shot when he grabbed Kaden by the neck.
"you so much as move, and i will kill him and no amount of power can bring him back. Not even going back in time, for i will through him into the Grave." he threatened, showing me the opening at the trunk, a small owl whole sat beside them, ordinary and plain. Kaden sturggled under him, but he was no match for the Power in him. He looked pleadingly towards me, unable to hardly speak from pain.
"Kaden" i whispered.
"you see i thought of getting your mother, but i knew it would be to difficult to manage her into the realms, i think, well ill just take care of her later" he laughs. "ill get someone she will give up her life to save. Someone she loves as much if not more than her precious Wense. Join me! this is your last offer. I wasnt lieing when i said i was falling in love with you" he said in a way that was purely Wense speaking, his eyes filled with pain. "i want you Cerean. We will be happy together, i promise you. I love you. Please!" he pleaded.
"let Kaden go" i closed my eyes. "let Kaden go, and i will join you" i grimaced.
"Cerean! Dont!" Kaden managed to say. "im not worth it"
"your right your not." Wense rolled his eyes and set him to the side, his pain still ahold of Kaden.
"now give me your amulet" he walked over to me, his eyes bright and swimming.
He pulled my hand open, taking the necklace in one hand and my waist in the other, dragging me to the opening in the tree.
"drop it in and say, "i bind thee power in the name of us" he smiled, pulling me closer, to kiss my neck. "and make sure you say it right or he dies." He smiles into my neck, his cool breath dances to me as his teeth skimm my skin.
i put the amulet over the opening, still in his hand, making a decision. quickly i hold the shining amulet directly and begin.
"I bind thee.... SALIZAR!" i shot, sending a new wave of anger and passion into continuious hits that send him backwards. The amulet is fire in my hands as he tries to stuggle to his feet, to prepare for battle, but i am already apon him with threatening blasts that hit him at the chest. Each blast taks more and more of his life. I feel myself screaming as the Power overcomes me in a new and intense way.
"i love you Cerean!" he tries in a feeble voice.
"I bind you Salizar,"i say with teary eyes. "I bind you of your POWER!" i scream at the top of my lungs as i feel myself taking in a new power. I try to fight the new current coming into me, but it flows too freely. Every bit of him falls in slow whisps of the wind until he is finally ash about my feet.
I fall to the ground in agony as the Power swims back to me. I feel weaker than i had ever felt, my body used up and broken.

"Cerean" a hoarse voice breaks. Kaden lays, dimminished and almost dead behind me. I jump over the roots to him. Salizar kept true to his promise as Kaden blinked his deep eyes at me. "cerean, the grave" he whispers.
"you are not going to die!" i cry. "not another life for mine."
"it would be an honor to die for you" he smiles up at me, the last shock going through him.
"i love you" i cry into his hand as his face suddenly catches in its frozen horror.
"god, no" i cry, cradling him in my arms. "i will fix this. I promise" i kiss his hand.
The determination flows through me as i climb up the roots, leaving splinters and gashes in my hands from the rough new bark. The tree is starting to fade as i rush up to the Trunk. The Grave is fleeting from my imagination. I run up to the trunk, and to the whole in the Grave.
"i bind the power in the name of the Tempust. For all the Mastery to come, let the Power flow freely. Let the control be determinded." i say with closed eyes, dropping the amulet into the Grave. Suddenly, the Grave is lit up in so many different waves of color. The green intertwines with the pink nad the black dances by its self. The color swirls go up into the sky, bending and thrashing until i can barley see them. Only one color remains. White. The intensly bright light is still swirling around the tree. It comes about me, lifting me into the air, twisting around my arms and face. It suddenly goes into me, making a warm sinsation appear in my heart. I feel it beating faster than i had ever thought as i become one with the light and am bursting with power. The light spins me gently back to the roots where i elegantly land on my feet. The amulet hovers inside the Grave still. It glows all the colors of the swirling streams, but something is different. The cresant moon is bigger and the eye is wider as if the power is expanding it. It quickly rushes to me, shrinking back to its original size and puts itself around my neck.
I turn now to Kaden. I grab my amulet and hold it firmly in my hands, thinking only of him. I am spun into a world of color, unlike the tunnel. I suddenly see the scene before me of only about 10 minutes ago, though it feels like a lifetime.
"you see i thought of getting your mother, but i knew it would be to difficult to manage her into the realms, i think, well ill just take care of her later. ill get someone she will give up her life to save. Someone she loves as much if not more than her precious Wense. Join me! this is your last offer. I wasnt lieing when i said i was falling in love with you"
I look over to Kaden, still alive. Something in Salizar's face has now changed.
"wait." he goes to say.
I step beyond him to Kaden, who is still in pain.
"your glowing" he smiles. "your back" he knows.
"NO!" Salizar screams "it cant be!"
I simply wave my hand in his direction as he bursts into flames, slowly peeling to the floor in agony.
"that was for you" i smile at Kaden, whos pain has now subsided. I take him in my arms and hold tightly as i turn to Salizar, still writhing in pain.
I wave my hand back over him and again he is ash. It was not so hard the second time to see his beautiful face turn to ash. Perhaps it was the new power, or the warmth Kaden gave to me as he still held me tightly, as his smell danced into my senses.
I feel a big pull as suddenly we are in the tunnel of light, yet it is the most glorious it has ever been. All the members of the Grave's carving are around us. My father, beside who i can only assume to be Kaden's from the resemblance. He smiles brightly at his son, and my father does at me. He turns around as as he walks away he fades into the light. Alexandria and Hogan are there, holding hands, waving to us as they also slowly fade.
We are shot forth, into the blinding light and are suddenly in the London Park, under the stone bridge way. People are around us, walking by in a frenzy to get to work or home.
"i love you too" Kaden says now, looking at me.
"you can rememeber dieing?" i ask amazed
"i can remember almost as much as you can." he smiles. "you Power is in me now too. we are binded" he adds shyly.
I smile as i reach up to kiss him, as he turns me into him. His hand grazes my face as his other twists in my hair. I laugh under his kiss as he pulls away.
"You can not even begin to realize how thankful i am for you." i laugh and reach up to hug him.
"i love you" he repeats. I open my eyes on his shoulder, looking out at the park behind him. A man, in the middle of the hurried passerby, stands completely still with a top hat and cane in his hands. His utterly handsome face is staring directly at me as he smiles dangerously. his piercingly lovely eyes wink at me once as he slowly turns and walks away.


Epiloge:
"cerean! where have you been? i havent recieved a writing since i dont know when!" Mr. Lou shouted to me. my editor was always a very crude man. He had a twined mustache that had begun to turn grey and a constantly creased forhead that never relaxed, even when he selmdomly did laugh. His beady eyes were always scanning some manuscript and his bald head continuteously had a sunburn in just the center. His pants were never wrinkled, but his shirt alway was, which confused me.
"im sorry, but i have been...busy" i laughed at the understatment to that. I had found a magical amulet, discovered a secret hidden from me by my father, who i had found out died to save me. I traveled to British India, found my protector, fell for my enemie, and then killed him,  fell for my hero, and then had to watch a countless number of people die because of me.  Not to mention that now it seems that he was back in search for me, somehow, for that is still a mystery to me. I now have to regroup the Mastery, finding young Tempuses to join and keep my mother from not beating me jollyly over the head at every chance she got for the fact that i was still using the Power. My now fiance was actually part of a secret soiciety of men who protected the travelers of time, and he also now had to recrute new member. Plus i had to wonderful task of trying to figure out how to control the immense power inside me which always seemed to slip out at the wrong moment, say in public when i turned the scone i was eating into a cake mid-bite. Yeah, id say i was bloody busy.
"busy! that is no excuse. Your a fantastic writer, and fantastic writers always find something to write about" he scolded. "what the bugger are you planning to write about?"
A smile came across my lips.
"oh, i think i have a story in mind." i laughed lightly.