I walked back to my locker. I thought about that Julian boy. He seemed nice. And it could just be me but...no, Millicent. Why would he think about you like that? You've only just met him. You can't have feelings for him yet. Just focus on getting to history on time, I thought to myself. I walked down the corridor to the history room. I was one of the first people there for once. I saw Julian sitting by himself in the corner. I felt sorry for him so I took the seat next to him. "Oh, hi again, Millicent," he said.

"Hi Julian," I said awkwardly. I placed my textbook on the desk. It was falling apart. Julian's textbook was brand new. I picked up my textbook to show Julian where we were up to and half a dozen pages fell out. "Stupid textbook," I muttered to myself, shoving the pages back into the book.

"Do you want to share my book?" asked Julian.

"Thanks," I replied. "This thing is ancient. The pages are torn and there are heaps of stains in it. It's probably as old as the school itself." It was probably true; this school was really old. It had been fixed up and upgraded a lot of times over the years but you could still tell that the place was really old because some parts, such as the library, had remained practically untouched since the school had been built.

Soon the teacher came into the room. It was Mr Jones. He wasn't all that strict, but he was still a good teacher. Thank goodness we didn't have Ms Bindle for every class; she drove everybody crazy, not just me. Mr Jones called the roll. Then we went up to the library to do some work on our essays (a different assignment to the English one, of course). Funnily enough, we were researching the ancient clans of Animia. I picked up the old textbook and my laptop and walked up to the library with everyone else. Bee, Fiona and I sat down at the table we usually sat at. Julian was sitting by himself so I offered him a seat at our table. Bee whispered something to Fiona. I didn't hear what it was although I thought I heard the words "Millicent" and "Julian."

I started the laptop up. The thing took ages to load. "Come on you silly thing," I said to the thing, I guess to try to will it to hurry up. Finally the login screen came up. I typed in my username and password and then the infernal thing decided to be even slower than it was before. Bee and Fiona decided to take this opportunity to pass notes around. Bee handed me a note that said,

Milli likes Julian!

So I passed one back that said,

Be quiet Bee.

Bee passed me another one.

I am being quiet.

I wasn't sure how to reply to this so I wrote,

Bee, don't be awkward.

Then the computer loaded (finally) and I got to work on my essay. About ten minutes later, while I was writing the essay, all of a sudden there was this huge CRASH! It sounded like a building had just been crushed. "What on Earth was that?!" Fiona squealed. Everyone in the library looked up from whatever they were doing and stared in the direction that the noise had come from. Then we saw it. A huge stone...something with glowing red eyes. It was like a  huge chunk of rock had come to life as some sort of demon. "Er... Don't panic, everyone," called Mrs Briggs, the librarian. "I repeat, DON'T PANIC!" She sounded like she was panicking. She ran into her office and I could see her cowering behind a newspaper underneath her desk.

"What is that thing?!" I cried. Whatever it was we could see it coming towards the school.

"I think I know," said Mr Jones. "In ancient times, there were the Manipulatives, those who could manipulate lifeforce itself, who had lifeforce that was almost pure. Their darkforce had left their bodies and eventually manifested itself as monsters and demons. I believe this demon is one of the creatures that was created from that darkforce."

"What is darkforce?" I asked. It sounded stupid, coming from someone who could manipulate lifeforce, a talent which was really rare nowadays; I really ought to know that.

"Darkforce," explained Mr Jones, "is the inner darkness inside us. It is evil. It makes us do evil things. For some people, their darkforce completely takes over them. These people are blinded by it and they can only think of gathering all the world's power for themselves." I immediately thought of that Freakazoid guy. He must have been a Manipulative; he had a half mechanical body like me. He must have been descended from one of the clans who had possessed this great power. But this was no time to think about that; these innocent helpless mortals couldn't do anything about this. There was nobody who had any powers against this thing. Nobody except me.

In a split second I had made my decision. I extended my mechanical wings and ran for the nearest exit. Then I took flight. By that time all the people in the library were standing (or hiding under tables) and staring at me with their mouths hanging open. Right, I thought. You're out here now, but how are you going to fight this huge demon? The thing was as big as the school, maybe even bigger. What could little ol' me do about it? I tried to remember everything about the ancient guardians of Animia. It was then that I had one of my random thoughts: what if I was a sort of... modern version of the ancient guardians? Perhaps I was destined to become a new guardian of Animia...

All of a sudden the demon swung a stone fist in my direction. I only just flew out of the way. I activated my lifeforce power. I felt really powerful, like I had felt on Saturday. There was light coming from my forehead, as a ball of glowing white lifeforce emerged there. Then I focused on my inner power until I felt I had enough and I unleashed it with a feeling that can only be described as electric. It was amazing. The ball of lifeforce, which had grown and was giving off little white sparks, hit the demon right in the head. But that wasn't enough to take it down completely. It recovered and took another swing at me. At the last second instinct took over. I sent lifeforce through to my hands and waved them around, creating a protective barrier of lifeforce. It would've been useful to know I could do that before, I thought.

I felt even more power building up inside, and I let my instincts take over from there. I looked down at the school below. Some people had dared to go outside to get a better look at the battle going on. I could hear some people cheering for me. I knew I had to stop this thing from hurting all those innocent people. I was the only one who could stop the terrible demon. I cried "Haarrghhh!" as I unleashed a ball of lifeforce that surrounded me and protected from the incoming blows that would've sent me tumbling down, probably to my death. I then gathered every bit of power inside and unleashed it.

There was a deafening explosion with lots of smoke and flying chunks of rock. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the demon. Nothing except a chip from one of its stone horns. There was a lot of cheering as I landed by Julian, Bee and Fiona. They hugged me. Everyone kept talking and yelling and trying to ask questions as I tried to get back into the library. I needed to finish that essay, after all!