Taylor Kunkel sat on the bus on his way back from school, oblivious to the loud obnoxious people in the surrounding seats. While they made jokes and laughed, he sat quietly listening to music and staring out the window. It was simply part of his routine, to daydream on his way home from school. Taylor loved the alone time. For once, he was the hero. He was popular. At least, he was in his dreams.
Someone shoved his shoulder, and he looked up. They were at his stop, and reality began to set back in.

He rushed off the bus, and walked towards his grandparents house, keeping his head held down to avoid the cat-calls and torment of those in his neighborhood with nothing better to do then mock the geek. Taylor heard the insults, but today, they didn't bother him. He didn't know why, but nothing had bothered him all day. Taylor sighed. He found that his grandparents weren't home, and made for his house, which was farther down the street, past the park.
He got home, to find his younger brother and sister getting home as well. “Paul, Theresa, get your homework done!” He called, before another thought. He turned off his Mp3 player, and began to get started on his homework, when his phone vibrated. It was a text from Roxanne, no doubt.

Roxanne was the girl Taylor was dating. They had been friends for a long time before they had started dating. They were both down, and new to relationships, so they tried each other. They had hit a few bumpy patches recently, and the text said just what Taylor anticipated,
“I don't like you as anything more than a friend. I'm sorry.”
Taylor didn't fight back tears this time. Unlike every other time, he didn't fight this one. He sent a quick text back, saying it was okay. That he didn't mind. And for once, honestly, he did. Something was different today.


Roxanne was almost fighting tears. She couldn't believe she had done it. She had liked Taylor when they were younger, but by the time he finally asked her out, things had changed. His text back pleased her. They hadn't been dating to long, and it hadn't gotten to emotional. This meant, with any luck, they would be able to go back to being friends. Roxanne smiled, and closed her phone. But she needed to go call a friend. She did set to work on her homework, planning to shortly go over to Dani's house.


Taylor coped, if you could call it that, in his normal way. He finished his homework, and went on line, finding his best friend Roy waiting for him on line. They started to chat about various things, and fired up a play-by-email role play, which they did with people across the globe as their own way of dealing with problems. But today, Taylor didn't have one. He tilted his head back as he sat in the computer chair, humming the tune of his current favorite “Streetlight Manifesto” Song.



Night came before long, and Taylor headed up to his bed. He laid down, and let his mind begin to drift. But this time, he wasn't thinking about video games, or anything like that. He thought of himself, standing on the rooftop. He ran across the rooftops, and even jumped across a few to reach houses farther in the neighborhood. He jumped clean off a roof, into the park, and landed without a problem. Something had called him here. And then they appeared.
Something moved from out of the shadow of the big gazebo in the center of the park. It jumped from shadow to shadow, and Taylor watched it come. Soon other movements appeared, and they all seemed to circle around him. Then the things jumped out of the shadows. They were like living shadows in the way that they were small and dark, black in color, but not pure black. They had a grey and purple-ish tint to them. They were like tiny hunched over dogs, that occasionally jumped up to two legs. The charge him, and Taylor moved on instinct.

A sword appeared in his hand as he made to slash the first one. It was a simple one and a half handed sword, and looked like a replica. He had never seen the blade before in his life, but it fit his hand perfectly, like it had been made for him. He cut down the first creature, then hit it with a rapid amount of blows to finish it. It dissolved into dust, and Taylor made to fight another. The second was hit by a similar set of combo's, and finished quickly. He felt something like a claw tear into his back, making several deep gashes. Biting his lip to avoid from crying out, and turned to face the third enemy. He hit it with a more powerful strike, and it too fell. The last two came at the same time. Taylor parried one, then slashing the other, finishing them without another thought. A cry lit the night, and Taylor turned and pierced a sixth straight through, and stuck his sword into a tree, the creature momentarily pinned, before it dissolved.

Taylor pulled his sword out of the tree, leaving a long mark. He sat down, wondering what had just happened, as the adrenaline wore off. He closed his eyes, and tried to think back to where he had been. The world spun, and soon he was again lying in his bed. His back hurt, right where the gash had been. The pain was incredible, but there were no marks. He tried to go back to sleep. “It was just a dream...”

His alarm buzzed at the normal time the next morning, but Taylor still overslept;
Taylor knew he might miss the bus, but at the last second went the other way, towards the park. He looked over the trees, and found the one he had fought beside in his dream. There was a long thin hole in it, pierced by something. He heard the bus pull into the neighborhood. Taylor began running, not thinking about what this meant...