Peter watched the young girl walk away from him; he saw light surrounding her, outlining her every move as though a protection spell surrounded her. Something that powerful could be considered a threat.

He turned and walked to his dormitory, which was directly across from the coffee shop, the building in the middle of the campus. Peter ran his fingers through his brown hair and entered his dormitory. On the outside, the door to the room was small, but the minute he walked inside, the room was large, the size of an apartment.

"Hey Peter." Adam, a tall beast of a man with sandy colored hair and gray eyes, sat at the counter smoking a cigarette. "I thought you went to get us some coffee."

"Nice to see you too, Adam," Peter responded and sat across from his friend. "I was on my way there, but then I ran into a student."

"You get a name?" Adam asked, sucking in a puff of cigarette smoke, Jennifer, a young woman with short black and purple hair, entered the room.

"What does it matter?" Jennifer said. "We're only here to summon his master. I don't give a rat's ass about who we're dealing with."

"Well then, you won't like what I am about to tell you," Peter responded. "Her name is Althea, and she could either be the one we're looking for, or the one we need to worry about." Now that he'd gotten Adam and Jennifer's attention, they were listening. "One of the ingredients we need for this ritual has to be a conduit, right?"

"Yeah?" Jennifer said. "So?"

"Well, she is a conduit, but I am a little hesitant about her," Peter answered.

"Oh, stop talking in riddles and get to the point," Adam groaned.

"Fine," Peter said in annoyance. "She's too pure, and she's extremely powerful."

"This is ridiculous!" Jennifer said, throwing her arms in the air as she sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. "There is only one type of conduit. We're following an old prophecy that has been around for centuries."

"Then you clearly know little about the other half of the prophecy," Said another person as he entered the room. Alex stood at the entrance carrying a large leather-bound book. "After the summoning ritual, the prophecy warns us: 'Beware of the person able to hear the Angels speak. He or she will be more powerful than they appear. They will also have other hidden abilities that not even the devil himself can understand.'"

"So let me get this straight," Adam said. "While we are searching for an actual conduit, we need to deal with someone who can hear angels?"

"Adam," Peter said. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I ran into her. She's more powerful than you think. I could sense her powers. We must be wary; I don't think she knows how powerful she is."

"Then this is a problem," Adam answered. "Peter, tomorrow, I need you to follow this girl, find out how powerful she is."

"You got it."

***

Back at the dormitory, Abigail returned to the room to find Althea deep in thought.

"Althea?" Abigail said, causing Althea to snap out of her thoughts. "You, okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Althea responded. "Something happened earlier this evening."

"What's the matter?" Abigail was concerned about her best friend.

"I ran into this guy," Althea explained. "He was strange. I've never seen him before."

"Did you feel anything?" Abigail asked.

"It was a dark presence," Althea responded. "Something that I can't make out." Abigail and Althea talked a little more before the two called it a night. They got ready for bed and fell asleep immediately. That same night, Althea found herself in a strange dream.

She was in a forest. It was nightfall and while she needed to find her way back to campus; she had a distinct feeling that there was something else in that dream with her. She walked through the darkened forest and all around her, she heard strange noises. Her stomach turned. She walked through the forest until she stumbled into a clearing. Examining her surroundings, she recognized the strange place. A trail led up to a log cabin which was built in the memory of a novel. Althea followed the trail until she spotted the cabin, which was left to rot. No one really took care of it after so many years left untouched.

The wood had rotted. The vegetation grew too high to a point where it covered nearly all the cabin. There were remnants of a fire pit that no one used, and the furniture inside the cabin was demolished. Althea stepped toward the cabin at the same time the door creaked open, stopping her in her tracks.

"Althea," said a voice.

"Hello?" Althea called back. "Is someone there?"

"Althea," it repeated in a sing-song voice.

When she got closer to the door, a large seven-foot-tall figure stood within the door frame. Before she could get any closer, the dream diminished.

Althea bolted awake in a cold sweat and found that she was still in her dorm room. Turning over to look at her phone, she saw it was three in the morning. The dream bothered her, but she figured the best thing to do was talk to her best friend about it in the morning. She lay down and stared up at the ceiling for ten minutes, thinking about the dream and the stranger. Something was going on and she wanted to find out. Althea closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.