Hearts of Mystic

A keeper of time and secrets/Fire of Hope

      In the dust. In the ashes... Where did it go wrong? I know... You're probably confused. I would be too. Well, I'm Toby, friends, like you, would call me Tick. Why? Why, I can control time, of course! And my eye goes tick tick tick! Actually, only I can hear the ticking of time, But everyone can see into time. My right eye always checks it. In fact, that's probably the only thing you see right now, since it glows. But my clock has wound down. I need to use my last breath of power wisely. None of that answers your confusion. You and I.. we're alone. This world is dead, this world is dark, they erased your memory. All our friends... They are dead. Everyone is dead. You survived miraculously... I used some of my last power to protect you. But this timeline is dust. But like a phoenix, I want to to be reborn and rise from the ashes... Remember. You don't know or remember. But you are Amber, The Heart of Fire, and that fire can bring hope. I'm going to bring you back. And I'll die. Don't let me die the second time. 
     
      Everything goes bright as you are reborn like the Phoenix in all of the legends. The passing of time is rewound by one tiny piece of hope.


       Amber woke up to the sound of her alarm clock, everything was blurry until she blinked a bit, she remembered her dream. Her dream felt really real, but, it couldn't have been. She fell asleep one day and woke up the very next. She still wondered what that boy meant. The Heart of Fire? Hope? Memory loss? It all seemed so... off. And all her friends being dead? She only had one real friend, and she knows she's fine... But the worry hit her like a truck and anxiety forced out of bed. Amber's choppy dark ginger hair was a mess, having long hair was very tedious sometimes. She looked in the mirror. Her stance suggested a lazy attitude, she was even missing her sock. Another almost sleepless night. Her golden hazel eyes glowed in the light of the sun pouring through her window. Her mother told her that her eyes were always this color and that she got her name because of that. Her pajamas were very comfy, they were white with orange cats on them. Though some buttons were missing on the top, she loved these and wore them every day. Her walls were dull and gray walls made her tight room seem dismal, but she preferred it this way, I guess it fits her style, she isn't the brightest. She opened her laptop, pulling back her hair from her eyes, she logged in. She went on to Yohu, Yohu is a messaging app in OUR world. And it's pronounced Yo Who. Not Yoohoo. Yo Who. It helps to connect with anyone in the world, our world, or others? Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, Amber texted her childhood friend, April. Here's the chat log. 


                                                         :Candy Queen:

Flame: Hey, April, you ok?

Candy: you're up early, or did you even sleep?

Flame: well that answers my question

Candy: well then answer mine!

Flame: ok, yes I slept... But I had a weird nightmare

Candy: oh? Do tell.

Flame: I was in some sort of dark place, I felt immense pain... Some guy was talking to me... He said his name was Toby.... Or that people like me call him Tick... He said he controlled time. He had this, this glowing eye, it was like a clock but blue. I didn't see much else of him. He said that all our friends were dead. Crazy right? It's just some dumb dream though, doubt it means anything.

Candy: weird... Definitely weird. Maybe some sort of sign, or, you've been watching too many science fiction series again.  

Flame: how early is it? The sun is shining.

Candy: it's May, Amber, in Philly. It's 5:40

Flame: oh. Keep in mind I'm still new here... I moved here to be with you.

Candy: yea, yea, I know. Anyways I need to shower, see ya!

         Amber closed her laptop and sat there thinking. And eventually also closed her eyes and fell asleep. The ringing annoying screeching of her alarm woke her up. Oh yeah, it's already 6:30. She glared at it while it screamed its annoying sound. It felt like she had just stopped talking to her friend. She finally got the motivation to punch it. She did it twice. She did it a third time. It had shut off the first time but Amber didn't care. She punched it one last final time with all the strength of her mighty Norse ancestors, swinging her hand down as fast as lightning. It didn't break she just hurt her hand a bit. She shook it off, after making painful gasps, and slowly got up out of bed and stretched, getting dressed in a red hoodie some gray jeans and white and orange tennis shoes. She starts brushing her hair, much to her pain. Finally, she was really for school. Except she had no idea where she put her backpack. She looked around everywhere for 5 whole minutes, tearing up the room. There blankets and pillow were messed up she looked all over her closet, the desk next to the bed was moved by an angle, causing many papers to fall on the floor. Amber finally thought to look under a small shelf that stood about 1 foot off the ground, and there it was, The basic black backpack she got at the Good Will. It was open, yesterday she left it lazily open and with her papers and binder on the floor. Though the backpack looked like it had something really big in it, something around the size of a basketball. She looked inside it confusedly, to see her bright orange cat, rusty, in her backpack, sleeping. 

"Rusty! Come on, get out of there!" Amber scolded her cat. Rusty opened his yellow eyes to look away and go back asleep.
"I don't have time for this! I have to get to the bus station..," She looked at the clock, it was now 6:37, "Literally right now!" She explained, he didn't respond.
"Fine, then we'll do it the hard way." She forcefully grabbed her cat pulling him out, straining her. She picked up this heavy shorthaired tabby. He meowed very pitifully as she picked him up.
"GOD DAMN YOU'RE HEAVY!" She complained as she dropped him off her bed. 
Rusty stuck his tail up as he walked away from her.
"Oh don't be like that." 
Amber lazily threw her papers and binder back into her backpack, throwing it on herself, she looked at her phone to check the time. It was now 6:40. Amber whispered about 10 prophanities as she ran out, only stopping to yell "BYE MOM" then she shot out the door.

Amber ran down the sidewalk, only to realize she forgot to eat. That didn't matter much. She got to the bus stop and stopped running. There was April, her blonde hair put up in a low ponytail, her wearing her favorite brown leather jacket that she put a bunch of pins on, with a long purple skirt and some brown boots, her shirt was white and had a blue rose on it. Her bright green eyes filled up with happiness when Amber got there. Her tablet was popping out of her bag, which she grabbed the strap of tightly, Amber was jealous of that one shoulder strap. Though, she'd never get around to buying a bag like that. 
"Hey, Amber!" She greeted happily.
"Hey!" Amber let out while panting.
"So, wassup??" April asked her, tilting her head.
"I'm tired." Amber sighed.
"Do you wanna hear me rant about my comic?," April asked with a cheeky smirk, "Or, would that just make you more tired?"
"I'm not going to be able to understand any of your weird rambling today but go ahead." Amber teased. 
"Ok, so, you know the character Richard right?" She waited for a second, "Well he's dead now, and I'm so sad about it! I hate Vixien!"
"Woah Woah, wait wait, I thought you HATED Richard, he's the priest right?" Amber was really confused. As much as she loved listening to her friend rant, she couldn't help but feel lost every time she talked about it. 
"Ok, so I guess I have to explain more stuff to you." April decided. And then she went on and on. 
The bus came after a small bit, they both hopped on, Amber took a seat closest to the window, as usual. April continued her explanation, Amber looked out the window while it rode, they were the last stop so she knew they would get to school soon. Out the window, Amber saw the usual set of stuff. Just passing signs, buildings, the school, a shadow monster sneaking around the school. Wait, what? Amber stared at it as it walked around, it had this bug-like outer armor shell, like a weird rolly polly, with long creepy 6 arms, 3 on each side, it was about the size of a larger cat, its eyes were completely white and she couldn't see it's mouth at all. It was smoking this weird black stuff. It was weirdly poking around at the dirt and seemingly sniffing.
"And then she stabbed him and Jay was devastated- Have you even been listening?" April prematurely finished her rant.
"Look!" Amber told her, pointing at the thing, "Look at that thing." 
April looked and had a curious look on her face.
"Woah... We should go poke it!" April suggested.
"Are you CRAZY?? No." Amber was stern in her decline.
"We should AT LEAST see what it even is!" April demanded.
"Have you ever heard the phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat'?" Amber questioned.
"Yea yeaaa... Whatever." April scoffed out.
The thing turned into a shadow and wisped under the door of the boiler room.
"What is it doing??" Amber asked.
"Look- There's another one!" April pointed out another one of the small creatures that was looking around. The line cleared up and they started to get off the bus. 
"We gotta find out what it is!" April exclaimed chasing after the creature.
"WAIT!!" Amber yelled, running after her. 
The creature let out a god awful screeching noise at April and scuttled off with amazing speed.
"You go check out the one in the boiler room, I'm chasing him!" April commanded before darting off.
"No!" Amber called out but it was too late, April was dead set of finding what these things were.
Amber thought for a moment, she couldn't possibly be stupid enough to go into the boiler room to see things creatures, The boiler room was not meant to be used by kids. And not to mention, THESE THINGS ARE TERRIFYING TO HER, She could barely describe them! Why would she-
BANG!!!  BANG!! BANG!!"
It came from the boiler room, they're doing something to it. No one would believe her. She knew there was another way to get in inside the building, it's usually not locks and sometimes even wide open. She went inside the building, it was loud and bright, the ugly blue and orange colors of the school was sickening, to mention the disgusting brown tiles in the commons and throughout the school. The bell rang, she didn't think it had been that long. She waited till everyone had left to their classes. It was easy not looking suspicious for her since she barely had any friends, the only ones who really recognize her are April and her friends. She snuck around making sure there were no staff members. The door was closed, she rattled the door, after a few tries it opened, she walked in. It was dark, she closed the door and she could barely see anything, she looked up, the lights seemed dead. he got the sickening feeling this was a terrible idea, she crept down the metal stairs as they made a thunking noise on her feet. She could hear small sounds like a tiny car that wasn't turning on, but if a thing of flesh and bones made it. Every little sound these things made every hair stand on end, she couldn't describe them without them sounding made up. The farther she went down the darker it got, the colder it got. She could barely see any of the stuff you'd expect to see. No boilers or tubes or anything. She felt her foot reach the bottom, it was like being completely blind, she saw one of their white eyes, she ran towards the creature.
"GET! Get outta here, go!!" She sorta whispered yelled. 
It HISSED at her and spat stuff that was a weird glowing purple at her in the process. She jumped back, she tried to kick it, her foot hit something and it made the weird noise again, she could hear scuttling behind her. She saw something glowing from the corner of her eye. She ran towards the object. It seemed to be stuck under tubes and stuff like that, she couldn't make out what it was.
She carefully reached down to grab it, it felt extremely hot, she nearly dropped it. She slowly pulled it out. It was the shape of a heart. A weird black heart that had cracks glowing a violent red-orange, It suddenly began to crack more as flames shot out of the heart, it hurt her eyes but strangely, not her hands. She heard a painful yet angry screeching from behind, she looked back and tried to find the creature. She threw the heart at it. But nothing happened. In fact, the heart had disappeared, now she could see three eyes coming closer, the scuttling.
She started backing up, not knowing what to do. Her back hit the wall. One of them screeched at her and showed a weird tube-like mouth, with small teeth going completely inwards, it moved like an earthquake as it screeched, and more of the purple acid sprayed out at her. She positioned herself directly on the wall.
"What the FUCK ARE YOU GUYS?!?!" She screamed at them, in pure horror.
One of them jumped at her, she punched it as hard as she can. It went flying backward its shell smoking a bit. Amber noticed light near her, it was coming from her hand. It was on fire but she didn't feel a thing! She screamed and shook her hand trying to get rid of it but nothing happened. One of the bug-like creatures got closer and screeched as hard it could. Still confused and panicked, she tried to throw the fire onto it, instead of some fireball like she was expecting it blasted the thing in a raging fire. She didn't stop until it was completely burnt out, It made a loud painful screech that sounded like a combination between screeching and a broken DVD player. The third one tried to jump at her and she tried to do the same thing with her other hand. Instead, a cool fireball hit it and scorched it a bit. The other one stopped screeching, she saw it disintegrate out of its shell. The first one she punched scuttle back. She kicked it, her foot caught on fire and she stopped and stomped on it as hard as she could, it made this crying sound, she heard the shell break, it bled purple blood. Amber cringed and made a painful sound as she watched the legs move around desperately. It's whole body caught on fire but the breaking of the shell had already killed it. She took her foot away and saw the purple blood all over her shoes. 
"Oh gross!" She exclaimed. 
The last one. The last thing. It let out a loud, screeching, agonizing roar and it scuttled toward her at incredible speed. Amber screamed as loud as she could and batted her hands, hoping her fire powers would do something. She threw constant fireball after fireball scorching it about 12 times! The other 8 missed it. It let out a small painful groan, it almost sounded sad. It disintegrated out of its shell as well. The lights flickered a bit then turned on, there was purple stuff all over and burns on the floor. Great. Not only was she scarred for life. She's a freak. At least, that's what she said to herself. The door opened. Even worse. She was prepared to get scolded by whoever came in and asked what happened and she'd be suspended for disobeying the rules and vandalism. 
"Amber! You ok down there?" Her friend worriedly called out.
Oh, thank the heavens! It's just April. She ran up to her friend and they went into the bathrooms to clean up and went to class by themselves. Amber got in trouble for being late but surprisingly no one asked why she was late.