Pitter pat, pitter and pat. That was the only sound that the water made as the rain splattered against the large windows of the Hale's living room. Listening to that noise though was the only thing that kept the now fourteen year old Lillian Hale awake on nights like this. She would twitch her hand at the rhythm of the rain while watching the rest of the room in the dark. She would lean against the window on nights like this. Something about looking out them made her uneasy. Then again the entire night made her uneasy.
It was on a night like this that her sister had vanished through that blue light for the last time. Only on that night she had given the much younger Lillian a necklace with a small pink jewel on it. Lillian learned later that the jewel was the heart of an entire world and possessed incredible magical powers. She also learned that she too was a heart of a world. She didn't believe what she was hearing at first, but seeing as it was her talking cat that was telling her this information.
She still didn't know much else about the situation, except that she was given her powers back from her three regents, but she would still ask Napoleon for advice from time to time. She could also see him watching her. He still always kept an eye on her, though maybe bordering more on the paranoid than anything. She still hadn't told him that for the two years since she got her powers back she had been doing the best she could to teach herself how to use them.
But back to the night and pitter patter of the falling water droplets. Lillian remembered more. About how the four of them left. Their friend Will had supposedly ran away from home and was never heard from again before that point, but the four of them left anyway. Only one of them returned.
Hay Lin wasn't the same after she came back. She remembered overhearing from Hay Lin's grandma that the young girl had had some kind of stroke, but that wasn't what Lillian remembered when she saw the once colorful girl dressed all in white. Hay Lin's eyes were still open from the shock of something tragic that had happened and she seemed so distant from everything else. Lillian hadn't known her that much though, but she was the only one of her sister's friends to return.
Lillian yawned and that's when she heard something break the sound of the rain. Something or someone was walking through the rain. Then she heard a whisper. "Are you ready one who has three hearts?"
Lillian spun her head but saw nothing other than the falling rain in the city lights. She stood and quickly averted her gaze from the window. What was that just now? She thought to herself quietly before flopping back down and returning her back to the glass. A whisper. Did she fall asleep or something? No, she wouldn't fall asleep on a night like this. Would she? The blonde pondered the question a bit before standing. She had school in the morning so she might as well get some sleep.
"Behind you." The whisper from before shouted. Lillian listened and spun on her heel. There was a boy out on her deck. She couldn't see his face. It was covered in a white hood. He wore a white shirt. Every part of him was white. He held his hand up and in a flash of golden light a giant key formed in his hands. He pointed the tip at her and it started to glow. Her chest tightened. She couldn't breathe. A beam fired from the key. She jumped, and landed hard on her side.
Through heavy breathing she stood. That beam had lit up the entirety of the room, but when she looked to where the boy was he was already gone. She ran to the sliding door and pulled it open without thinking about the wind and the water, but once outside there was nothing. No sign that the boy was there. No footprints, no way for him to have gotten off of the roof.
"They will come after you." The whisper spoke to her.
"Who's there?" Lillian screamed. She searched everywhere but couldn't see a thing.
"But they aren't the ones to fear." The whisper spoke up again before the rain stopped. Water dripped off of Lillian as the moon came out of the remaining cloud cover. She shook her head and patted the sides of her forehead before heading back into the room. She was totally oblivious of the person dressed in black hopping off the roof.
"So, is sleeping beauty awake?" Chris Lair asked as Lillian walked out of the kitchen with toast hanging in her mouth. Her mom had let the boy who had become Lillian's best friend since the incident, and the only person besides Grandma Lin, the Regents, and Hey Lin that knew about her powers.
"Call me that again." Lillian chewed as she slug her bag over her shoulder and walked past him. "And I'm going to smack you."
It was a noted difference between Lillian and her sister that Lillian didn't care half as much for her looks. She dressed and wore herself like a typical tomboy. It was probably because she always seemed to be with Chris wherever the two would go.
"I was just asking because last night was one of those kinds of nights." Chris said after waving goodbye to Mrs. Hale and running to catch up to the girl. The two were now in the elevator and the drowning sound of elevator music made the blonde yawn some.
"I got some sleep last night if that is what you're asking." Lillian stretched a little. She had to get ready to leave as soon as she got up. Not much time to wake up.
"Sounds like last night was pretty boring." Chris smiled at his comment. He always was trying to find ways to lighten the mood, and smiling was a definite good one.
"For the most part." Lillian said calmly as they walked out of the elevator. She wasn't about to worry Chris with the events that happened last night.
After the morning the day went by uneventfully. School ended and Chris had to run some errands which left Lillian to walk home alone. Which she didn't mind. She was still milling over the events that had happened last night.
Once home, she began quickly working on her homework. Looking up occasionally for slight things she thought she heard. She put the headphones that were usually around her neck onto her ears and let the music overtake her while she worked hard on what she needed to get done.
Within moments Lillian was asleep on the couch, but her movements called out that she was not dreaming a pleasant dream.
"You're lax." A voice called out to her as she stood on an open field. It was distant, but familiar. "At this rate I'll win."
"Is someone there?" Lillian asked calmly. A white glove grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. The boy in white was there. The key tip pointed towards Lillian's chest. The tip glowing. She screamed…
And shot up from her chair, launching her book across the room. Her breathing returned to a steady rhythm before she looked around her, and then onto the balcony. She needed to calm down, but there was just too much going on. It was then that she noticed a light filtering out through her shirt. The pink gem was glowing brightly as she pulled the necklace out from underneath the cloth.
"What are you going off about?" Lillian questioned. It wasn't an everyday occurrence but it was still pretty annoying when it did happen. She heard the door close then. She turned in the direction of her sister's old room. A blue light was emanating from a crack within it.
Within moments the young girl burst through the door to reveal that nothing and no one was there. The room itself had been turned into a storage room, and was unofficially Napoleon's room. The pink gem had even stopped glowing which confirmed to the girl that nothing was there.
Lillian shrugged and walked away. Something was definitely odd, and she desperately needed to get to the bottom of it. So she wrote a note and left the house. She would talk to the person who knew more about the pink gem then she ever would. As she closed the door to her home a red eye peeked out from the crack in the door as a blue light emanated from her sister's old room.
-------------------------------------------
Lillian arrived at the Silver Dragon in relatively short time. Walking through the doors the bells rang to chime that a guest had arrived.
"Welcome to the…" An apathetic voice filled Lillian's ears. The teenage girl had cut her long hair since the last time Lillian had seen her, but she was still as cold and distant looking as anyone dressed in all white would look. "Are you on a date or something?"
"Actually, I'm here to talk to your grandma." Lillian responded to Hay Lin's comment. "The pink jewel was just glowing a while ago, and a strange guy in white attacked me last night. At least it felt like an attack."
"I've said it once and I'll say it again." Hay Lin grumpily motions for Lillian to go sit in one of the private rooms. The Lin's had expanded the restaurant since Lillian was ten and now the restraint was much larger and had three private rooms especially for parties and important events. "That jewel brings nothing but trouble. Get rid of it."
Lillian sighed at the comment as she walked into the room and sat down. She would never give up the thing. She promised her sister that she would never let it leave her sight, and so it never did. She even showered with the thing, and it seemed to be okay with that.
"What problems are you having with the heart Lillian?" The elderly of the two air guardians entered the room after a while. Lillian jumped up quickly and gave the woman a huge hug and after basic greetings and how do you do's the true conversation began. Lillian explained everything about what had happened the night before, and what had happened before she came to the restaurant.
"The heart would only react like that if something evil was near." Yan Lin explained the reason for the glowing. "However, this man in white didn't cause a reaction at all. That is truly strange. I suggest you go home, and if the man shows up again call me, and whatever it was reacting to seems to have passed."
"Okay," Lillian nodded to Yan Lin before the two hugged and the young blonde left for home.
Lillian still felt odd about that boy the night before, and why was he in her dream during the nap. It had grown dark since she left her house and the city streets where pretty empty. Then a flash of blue lit up the area in front of her. Out stepped a man with blue skin and bulging muscles.
"And you would be?" Lillian said without the hint of surprise. She after all dealt with a talking cat that would continuously complain about his litter box not being cleaned.
"Prince Phobos requests your presence, Heart of Earth." The man said as large claws erupt from his wrists. "And I'm here to insure that you accept his invitation."
Lillian braced herself to turn tale and run. As far as she knew Hay Lin still had her powers, and the Asian girl knew how to fight. The chance to run didn't come. The man was fast. He appeared behind her and wrapped Lillian in a large bear hug. He was laughing. She was struggling. What else could go wrong?
Lillian closed her eyes. She heard screaming as she was dropped to the ground. Her eyes flashed open after impact to see a girl with medium length green hair. She was holding one of the beast's arms. She wore a purple sleeveless trench coat that seemed to defy gravity at the bottom to reveal blue jeans that were tattered at the bottom. She watched the beast with orange colored eyes.
The man growled. He turned and slashed at the girl with his claws only for the claw to be blocked by a long black sword. She had spun. She had blocked the attack flawlessly, and with speed that the man could keep up with.
"Tell your Prince that he can come himself." She spoke softly. Almost like a whisper. A whisper like the one that Lillian had heard the night before. Suddenly, a whole opened in the air like a mouth and started to suck th two into it. She slammed a foot into the man's gut and he stumbled back into the black void and the hole closed. The woman then flicked the blood from her sword and walked past Lillian while sheathing the blade.
"Those aren't the ones you should fear either." She spoke before vanishing right before Lillian's eyes.
A/N: Was trying to come up with a defeat to a small block that had come up and this came to mind. So, I've decided to see where this goes. The original idea is still there, but this is definitely not what the original idea was going to be. Anyway, like always if you read the story please review. And tell me what you think guys. Okay.