When we arrived at her house it didn't look like much on the outside but it was beautiful on the inside it had a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. On the main floor it was pretty normal, there was a fancy looking bathroom with a self flushing toilet and a huge shower. There was a huge kitchen with dozens of cupboards, there was a fridge and a mini fridge with a lock on it which was probably alcohol, or human hearts, a living room with a fifty six inch tv and black leather couches. The only weird thing was that the basement had at least six locks on it.

When I tried to ask what was down there she smiled and said

"My ex's."

Which I guess made me turn white because she looked at me and reassured

"I'm only kidding, Ëykotos you're gullible. Which I somehow understood that it meant hell even though I don't even know what that language is. There was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. She gave me a tour of the house upstairs, which has three bedrooms, hers was all black and red with posters of the movie Twilight and pictures of dracula, which I found slightly funny.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked.

"So you're a vampire fan?"

"Yah so?" She obviously started getting a little upset.

"Nothing, I just find it cute." More ironic than cute though I thought to myself. She blushed slightly and this time she seemed lost for words.

"Anyways," she said, ''this is the guest room and that's my parents' room. Please don't go in there. . .and that concludes the tour." she said, placing her hands on her hips dramatically.

"Do you want to go see my room again?" She asked

"Yah sure" I replied oblivious to what was going on. We went in and she plopped down on her bed and patted next to her.

"So are we going to go to sleep or something" I asked stupidly.

"No silly" she responded with a slightly higher voice. She put her hand on my cheek and made me face her.

"Don't you think I'm in your personal space." She was about to kiss me but something seemed to catch her eye. She turned and saw her amulet on her bedside table glowing a brilliant shade of red and pink. She had a look of fear in her eyes. She pushed me away with what seemed like super strength and my head hit the wall with a loud thump. That's when everything went black.

When I came to, I was tied up to a chair in a dark room. There were rows of shelves filled with different things like bone saw's, torture devices I even saw a head in a jar filled with a golden liquid. I groaned as I seem to have developed a bad habit of becoming unconscious, that can't be good in the long run.

A familiar voice spoke in the darkness,

"So. . .you're awake."

"Mrs Vandhousen?" I asked.

"No" she said as she walked into my line of sight. "That is my mortal name. I am Grissom child of. . ."

"Wait, your real name is Grissom? Here I thought Vandhousen was bad." I was going to say more but she hissed and slashed at me with her nails.

"Gah!!!" It was the worst pain I ever felt in my life.

"What did you do to me?" I yelled frantically trying to get loose from the ropes.

"I poisoned you, she hissed, now be quiet or I'll give you a higher dose. I just moaned in pain as she continued

"I am Grissom child of Khasa and you will answer my questions son of Atraya or you will die slowly and painfully." I watched in horror as she turned even fatter, her nails came out dripping with some sort of deadly poison, her eyes narrowed into slits as her flesh began to turn a dark bluish.

"God you're ugly" was all I could say. She hissed and slashed at me again right across my chest. I screamed in pain.

"Grossom" a voice said coming down the stairs

"You said you wouldn't hurt him."

"I'm a Rakshasi" she hissed back

"I lie" She then turned to face me,

"How many of you are here?" She was going to slash at me again when Cassidy caught her arm

"I said don't hurt him" she yelled.

"You dare defy me girl, I am your master. I took you in even after the other vampiricas kicked you out for refusing to feed. You almost died from starvation until I came along." She went to slash her but Cassidy caught her other arm and kicked her in the belly. Grossom flew back and hit the wall and growling and trying to pick her body off the ground, she rolled about trying to get up, whatever she was, she was obviously overfed. While Cassidy went behind me and slashed at the ropes tying me to the chair, she was going to help me up but I got up quickly and backed away from her.

"You're a vampire and you knocked me out" I yelled, I think I've had enough help for one day."

"You still need me" she hissed, she can track your scent without me you'll die!

"Okay okay" I said, "I'm just worked up, let me just calm down." That's when Mrs. Vandhousen started to shapeshift back so she could get up easier.

"But not here" Cassidy said hurriedly with tears still in her eyes she grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs.

"Hold on." I said I went back down cautiously, grabbed a hammer that was lying on the shelf closest to the stairs and threw it at Mrs. Vandhousen as hard as I could for good measure and ran not daring to look back as I heard a howl of pain. "Come on hurry." We ran upstairs and burst through the front door. It looked like the middle of the night we got in a black Chevy blazer which I assume was Mrs. Vandhousen's as it wasn't there before. The digital clock said it was eleven: eleven, make a wish I thought I closed my eyes and muttered to myself

"I wish for all this to make sense soon."

Little did I know I was going to get my wish much sooner than I realized.

"What are you doing?" Cassidy asked who just started up the car.

"Making a wish" I gestured to the time.

"Mortals and their silly superstitions." She pulled out of the driveway and headed full speed down the road She turned to look at me and I yelled

"Keep your eyes on the road!" We were going over one hundred miles an hour, dodging and weaving through traffic. She didn't slow down until we got on the highway and that's when I realized I was holding onto her hand. I was all sweaty and scared to death, it probably took me at least five minutes to calm down before I let go of her hand.

"Sorry" I blushed, feeling my face go red from embarrassment. As I turned to confront her about how I ended up tied to a chair in the first place she turned and looked at me dead in the eyes

"Who sent you?" She turned her attention back to the road but leaned in like she was listening for something

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. That seemed to calm her down.

"Where are we going?"

"Arcadia" she replied as if that explains everything. "Why did you push me and how did I get locked up in the basement?" I asked.

"I thought you were here to kill me, so I accidently knocked you out and then since you knew where I lived. I tied you up in the basement but Grossom got back and came down stairs before I could stop her so I had to tell her everything." She looked at me with tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"I told her not to hurt you and went upstairs to get a glass of water but that's when you woke up." She looked like she was about to cry so I didn't push it any farther.

"So what is this Arcadia?" I asked

"I never heard of it." She quickly adjusted the mirror to see if anyone was tailing us and replied,

"It's a special place for people like you. Children of the gods" she added after seeing my expression. "Children of the gods." I repeated.

"Like Thor, Odin and Loki?" She looked at me like she was trying to consider if I was being serious or not.

"No" she started

"It's an older more. . . ancient gods." "This time I looked at her too see if she was being serious.

"It's a religion from which before religions were a thing" she continued as if she didn't notice me staring at her.

"No mortal in thousands of years has even heard a mention of one of the ancient gods or anything to do with it." I nodded as if this made any sense.

"Then how do you know of them?" I asked.

"All monsters know of them, some have even met them, if they survived that's another matter and all halflings like you learn about them eventually. Unless they die first of course." She replied.

"Who am I a child of" I asked.

"You are the child of Atraya, goddess of love, beauty and war." As if that was a compliment.

"How do you know that?"

"My amulet glows the sacred colours of the gods when one of their children is around."

"Great so my mother is the goddess of rainbows and murderous unicorns." I mumbled.

She stared at me like I was an Idiot.

"Not at all your mother is probably one of the strongest gods there are, top five at least and besides your mother's sacred colour is red and pink. The colours for both love and blood. Her sacred animal is a dove, they are a symbol of peace and good luck." She finally finished as she almost ran out of breath. We pulled off the highway and entered a small town called Dalery, that's when my stomach made the loudest gurgling noise ever and I realized I hadn't eaten in three, almost four days now.

"Anywhere we can stop to eat?" I asked. She dug through the cupholders feeling for change. She pulled out four dollars and thirty five cents worth of change

"Anything in the glove compartment." She asked. I started digging through the glove compartment as we pulled into a Chubby Cheese burger joint.

"There's a couple of twenties in this drivers book,'' I replied.

"Great that will be enough for some food and gas." She huffed. As we got out of the car and was about to walk into Chubby cheese burger the whole car just blew up and me and Cassidy went flying. She smashed into another car and made a huge dent as I smashed through the Chubby cheese burgers window with a blow that should have killed me. I sat there in pain, my ears were ringing and I was bleeding all over people scattered in a panic. Multiple people sitting closest to what was our car were injured with glass stuck in them and scrapes all over. I distinctly heard someone calling 911. One of the customers started filming just standing there then he pointed the camera at me and dropped it his mouth agape.

"Wow dude!" He looked at me in awe. I looked down at my body to see what he was looking at and sure enough it was spectacular. My body was healing itself in an unnatural state. I watched as the last of my cuts turned into scars and the scars shrank until there was nothing there but skin, completely normal, undamaged skin. I ran to the washroom and looked in the mirror. I watched as my limp arm seemed to move by itself and just pop back into place. I realized the police were coming and I wouldn't be able to explain myself healing so fast nor could I explain Cassidy bleeding black ooze. Wait, black ooze....

"Shoot!" Cassidy she's still outside. I ran out the bathroom and jumped out where the window used to be. I saw her lying there completely unconscious. She was surprisingly light as I picked her up and ran as fast as I could away from there just as far away as I could get. I turned down an alley and tripped on a drunk homeless man just laying there. I dropped to the ground just managing to hold onto Cassidy and my head slammed into her stomach, all I could say was,

"Ow." The homeless man was so drunk he didn't even notice that I tripped over him, he just responded with a grunt.

For the first time since the accident I took a good look at Cassidy, it was worse than I thought. Both her legs were crooked in a position that they shouldn't be in and she had a huge gash on her head that was pouring out black ooze. If I didn't do something soon she was going to die. All I could do was sit and watch. Then I thought no I'm not going to let her die. That won't happen, it can't and that's when something beautiful happened. My whole body glowed a brilliant shade of pink and was bright and warm. I smelled good to like ladies perfume mixed with peaches and strawberries. Somehow I could tell she had a fractured femur on the left leg and a dislocated kneecap on the other I closed my eyes and felt as my hands glowed brighter. My hands hovered inches from her legs. I opened my eyes and I had X-ray vision. I saw her kneecap pop back into place and watched as her femur mended itself. My hands hovered over to where she had the gash on her head and the wound sealed itself shut. There was no more blood, no more wounds, it was just all gone. I fell back in shock as Cassidy sat straight up and gasped for air like she had been drowning and I'd just given her mouth to mouth.

"What happened?" She asked, looking around frantically.

"The car blew up." I replied while getting up. I stretched out a hand to help her up but she smacked it away and got up by herself.

"Damn she must have rigged an explosive incase it ever got stolen." Cassidy concluded.

"How come we have no cuts or even flesh wounds."

"Must've gotten lucky." I lied.

I'm not really sure if that was normal even for a halfling that seems pretty bizarre.

Cassidy looked behind me.

"Who's that?" That's when I realized the homeless guy was standing right behind me. He looked at me with fear in his eyes

"You're an alien."

He ran off screaming about aliens from Venus coming down to earth to probe us.

"We better get out of here." Cassidy said.
"The cops will be looking for the owner of the car that blew up."

As we left the alley we walked down the street to a gas station that sold bus tickets, we bought two tickets, a bag of chips and a bottle of Cola. We waited by the bus stop for what seemed like hours not saying one word to each other while munching on chips. They have never tasted so good in my life. As the bus pulled up we heard a sharp clattering sound like bones being dragged across pavement with the sound of horse hooves galloping nearer and nearer.

"Oh no." Cassidy grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the bus. She then slammed her elbow on the drivers head, pulled him off the seat and started driving the bus at full speed.

"What in the. . ." I started.

"I'm saving our lives" she said as if that explained everything.

That's when I looked out the back window and saw a headless man riding a horse with no skin. The headless man was holding a whip made out of human spines. It was somehow managing to gain on us even though he was on a horse and we were in a bus. I tried to hold on as we made a sharp right. Except for us and the headless guy no one was out on the streets this late so luckily we didn't have to worry about traffic. The horse moved with incredible speed. I watched as the horse turned the corner as quickly and smoothly as riding a bike. Even though there was no mouth I heard it clatter two words,

"Dean Ryder."

"What in the hell is that?" I yelled.

"That is a Dullahan, it's like the headless horseman but it carries a whip made of it's victims spinal cords."

"How do we kill it?" I asked.

"We can't, we need the head."

That's when he slashed the wip at the bus popping a wheel.

"Come on a bit further" Cassidy muttered to herself.

We took a hard left and the cement road turned into a narrow dirt road with twists and turns. Cassidy struggled to drive with the popped tire.
"Find something gold" she yelled at me. I started digging through all the glove compartments.

"Come on, come on." I prayed to anyone out there with their listening ears on. The Dullahan was still trailing us from behind and was almost right behind the back door. He stood up on his horse and jumped, landing on the roof of the bus with a big clunk. I heard it crawling its way, its fingers penetrating the roof of the bus climbing its way over to us.

"Damn nothing" I sighed as the bus bumped over a big rock sending me flying into the unconscious bus driver's body. That's when a golden pocket watch on a chain fell out from the bus driver's pocket.

"Got it!" I yelled.
I put the pocket watch around my neck as Cassidy screamed.

"Good hold on." as she slammed the bus full speed into a tree sending the Dullahan flying off the roof and out into the dark forest. The sun was starting to rise as I limped out of the bus, I could already feel my body healing itself, Cassidy was not so lucky, this time it was her that flew through the window. As I limped out of the bus I saw a horrific sight, the Dullahan was standing over her body with his whip around her throat and his voice clattered

"Cassidy Davies." She looked at me with tears in her eyes as she pointed north and managed to mouth her final breath,

"Go."

The wip tightened around her neck and made a sickening crack as her head snapped and fell from her body, I watched in slow motion as her head hit the ground with a thump.

"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I crumpled to the ground as I bent on all floors and gripped a fistful of dirt. The Dullahan started towards me. No I thought I can't, I won't let him get me too. I ran towards him, my fist clenched and to my surprise he backed up. I looked down and realized the gold pocket watch. I ripped it off my neck and charged towards the Dullahan screaming like a mad man that's when his horse ran towards him and he got up on it, if he had a face I feel like he would be flipping me off right about now but I didn't care. His horse came around like a valet parking system. He hopped on his horse and rode off back the way we came. I sat down by Cassidy's body, all the black monster blood was sinking into the ground then her whole body got soaked up by the ground but a single fang. I picked it up gingerly and put it in my pocket as I lay down and fell asleep on the cold damp forest grass. As I closed my eyes I saw two people in full body armor with spears at the ready. I heard one whisper,

"What should we do with him?"

"You saw what he did." The other one said

"He's probably one of us, let's take him to Arcadia, where he will meet Solomon."