Chapter 1 I wish I could have been prepared for what happened on October thirteenth. Even if I went back in time and told myself what happened, I doubt I would believe myself. I don't even want to talk about what happened, but if it would help you if you ever find yourself in the situation I was in, here it is: it began like any other day. I went to the kitchen and saw my older brother Will scolding our younger brother James about how the cereal goes in before the milk. "No, the milk goes under the Rice Krispies," James insisted. "That’s the way I’ve always done it." Will rolled his eyes. "And you always make a mess." I looked at Will. "Do we have eggs? Also, where's Mom and Dad?" I glanced around our apartment as if they were going to jump out from behind the couch and scream 'SURPRISE'. "No, we don't have eggs, and they went to Anna's wedding, remember? " "Bet ya five dollars she's gonna get divorced again." James said gigging. I tried (and failed) to stifle a laugh. Anna is my dad's cousin, she is just about 40 and has gotten divorced three times. I sat down and poured myself a bowl of cereal, then told Will I was going to eat on the fire escape. As soon as I sat down, I heard my neighbor Jackson Tenedor. He lives in the apartment right above ours, and he thinks it's his personal duty to mess with me whenever I eat outside. "JACKSON, WHAT DO YOU WANT?" I yelled up to him. "ARE WE GOING TO WALK TO SCHOOL, OR ARE WE TAKING THE BUS TODAY?" "COME DOWN HERE, I DON'T WANT TO YELL!" "OK!" Jackson climbed down the ladder. "So, walking or riding?" "I heard you the first time." "Okay, so walking or riding?" "I’d say bus, but have you asked Paige?" "No, Want to do that now?" "Yeah, I'll just go tell Will and James what we’re doing." I turned toward the window, but before I could say a word, James was already there. "We heard your whole conversation, and if you don't hurry up, we’ll be late." He checked his watch, tapping the face of it. "It's already 8:43 and we have to be in class by 9:00. If we walk, we'll be really late." "Okay, I'll be right back." James nodded and Jackson headed inside to talk to them. I climbed down the ladder and knocked on Paige’s door. She opened it and sighed "Jane, what do you want?" "Do you want to walk to school or take the bus?" "The school is two miles away. Take a wild guess, do you think I want to walk?" "Fair point, but Jackson wants to know." "Tell him to meet me where we pick up packages, from there we can figure it out." "Okay, meet you there." Paige nodded and disappeared back inside. I climbed back up the ladder to tell the boys the plan. We decided to take the bus so we started walking together towards the stop. Once we got there James asked Jackson about his trip to Mexico to visit his cousins, and somehow that turned into a game of thumb war. "Guys...what's that?" James asked with a nervous edge to his voice. He pointed to the sky, his hand shaking. I looked to where he pointed and I saw it, a large, dark, humanoid creature with wings and features was coming right towards us! I looked over at Jackson, his face was pale and his knuckles white. "Run," Jackson whispered. We all got the message, loud and clear. We turned and ran. We sprinted across the street and into a forest, almost getting run over by a car. We could still hear whatever it was still flying above us. Sooner rather than later it landed right in front of us. It hit the ground hard and somehow elegantly at the same time. The 'feathers' were razor sharp and looked as if they were made of metal. Honestly they reminded me of throwing knives. The monster looked like some sort of a war harpy. "Jackson Tenedor we meet again." I looked over at him, hoping this monster had made a mistake, but he did not look confused. "What do you want devil bird?" He hissed "What do I want Jackson Tenedor? What an amazing question! I want to rip you to pieces, I want to hear you scream, but I have a mission and sadly for me it's not that." "What's your mission this time?" He asked. "What an amazing question Jackson Tenedor! My mission is to get HIM!" She lunged at James. I screamed and tried to to stop her but it was to late, she had my brother and she was nowhere to be seen.
Paige stood there, mouth hanging open frozen in shock, Jackson kept saying 'sorry' over and over again. My knees felt weak and my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Will collapsed and started crying. I came and sat down next to him. In-between sobs Will somehow managed to choke out, "The last thing I told him was the cereal goes in first." I hugged Will and after about a minute he stopped crying. He stood up, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, turned to Jackson. "Jackson what was that thing, and why did it take James? "No time to explain, follow me." "And why should I trust you?" Will's voice was bitter. "Because it's your only choice." His words hung in the air. I hated the fact he was right. Nobody dared to speak for about 30 seconds. In the silence I heard the wind in the trees, the little squirrels and mice running around, the crunch of the dry leaves under our feet, and everyone's breathing. Finally Will spoke, "Fine I'll go with you, but that doesn't mean I trust you, and if anything else happens to anyone, I don't know what I'm going to do, but it won't be pretty." Jackson nodded and started walking, so we followed him. Eventually he came to an abrupt stop, and said, "Stay here. I need to find something." He walked over to a bush and started digging in it. Finally he grabbed a crowbar and walked over to where we were standing. He brushed leaves away revealing a manhole cover. But it didn't look anything like the other manholes in our city. Instead of saying V.D.O.T this one had a sword. Jackson used the crowbar to open it. "There is a ladder down there, whenever you're ready, climb down." Paige climbed down, followed by me, Will, and finally Jackson. After Jackson closed the manhole cover and reached the bottom, he grabbed a flashlight out of his jacket pocket and turned it on. The sewer looked like any other sewer, it was dark, wet, and smelled like sewage. I don't know what I was expecting but I was not expecting it to be normal. We walked along for a while longer, every step ecoing in the tunnel. Then we found another ladder, so we followed Jackson up it. He used his hand to push open another manhole cover and Jackson gasped he closed it and Will hissed, "Jackson what is is this time?" "Don't panic, but the devil bird is waiting right up there, I saw it." "Don't panic is literally the worst way to start a sentence." Will whispered back. "I have a plan, I'll go up and distract it, Will you run up that hill and yell the name 'Everett' he will come and he knows how to help. Jane, Paige, you two come up too and help distract it." Paige was quieter than usual. I was terrified, and I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, I wanted to wake up and find out this is all just a bad dream, and more than anything I wanted to have James back, safe and sound. But it wasn't a dream, this was real life. Paige nodded and said, "Jackson, tell us when." He nodded and whispered "Now." And we climbed the ladder. Jackson once again, pushed open the manhole cover, but this time, we climbed through. "JACKSON TENEDOR! Bold of you to show up here, have you told your friends about all of this?" The devil bird thrust her arms out, gesturing towards the woods. Jackson took great interest in his shoes and didn't make eye contact. "Jackson Tenedor, you haven't told them." "Told us what?" Paige asked? Before he could answer, Will, and another kid came running down the hill. I figured the other kid must be Everett. He had short, brown hair-kind of like Will's, and dark brown eyes, and he looked like he was in about 7th grade, the same age Will. Nothing looked unusual about him except for the fact he had a sword and a shield. "JACKSON TENEDOR, YOU GOT HELP YOU SLIMY SUBWAY RAT! HAVE YOU EVER HEAD OF THE SAYING 'FIGHT YOUR OWN BATTLES'? Jackson nodded hesitantly. "THEN DO IT! FIGHT ME AND DO IT YOUR SELF YOU COWARD!" "FINE THEN!" Jackson yelled back " BUT DON'T FORGET WHO BEAT YOU LAST TIME! Then he took off running. The harpy started ripping out her own feathers and throwing them at Jackson as if they were knives. Then the harpy grabbed a large rock and flew into the air, circling above. I knew what the harpy was trying to do. She wanted to drop the rock on Jackson. Everett apparently, also knew what the harpy wanted to do. "JACKSON CATCH!" He yelled as he threw the shield as if it were a Frisbee. Jackson caught it, ducked down, and held the shield over his head, anticipating the impact. Then the harpy dropped the rock.
