Avi was stood on the subway, at the intersection between the two carriages where the floor was the most wobbly, throwing bits of an old packet of gum wrapper at his best friend, Kevin. He and Kevin had been friends ever since they had ended up in the same group foster home. Despite being older and a lot taller than Avi, Kevin was kind of a push over and was a target for the bullies at the home.

It had been one incident with the meanest of the bullies, a brawny, ginger kid called Jeff James, that the two had struck up a friendship. Jeff had been in the middle of force feeding Kevin a worm in the back yard and Avi, although not really known for protecting the weaker kids, finally had enough of it and had whacked Jeff around the head with an old drainpipe. That had earned him a criminal record at the tender age of nine.

Ever since though, he and Kevin had remained the tightest of friends, even when they had both moved to different foster homes, and the two now had the same job at the local car manufacturers. People were often surprised that the two even liked each other due to the fact they were so different.

The older boy turned in frustration as Avi's latest missile hit it's mark in the boy's ear.

"Stop that already would you?" he sighed. Avi just grinned cheekily at him and Kevin turned away rolling his eyes and focused back on the latest book he had been reading. Avi could barely remember the last time he had picked up a book let alone read one but that was the least obvious of the difference between the two.

Avi was something of what people liked to call a "wild child". He raised hell wherever he went, got into fights and stole from stores. Since he was a toddler first being put into care he had always found a way to get into mischief.

He was pretty much feared and despised at everywhere foster home he ended up at. But not by Kevin. Never by Kevin. Kevin's friends - he actually got on with other people unlike Avi - always told him he was attracted to the boy's wildness, but Kevin just always insisted Avi was a great guy to hang around with.

As he had matured, and learned to better control his anger, Avi's reputation had softened over the years but he was still a minor legend in their local neighbourhood and not someone you messed with, even if you were bigger and older than him.

Kevin on the other hand had been a polite and shy child, ending up in foster care when his mother, who had been a prostitute, had given him up to authorities, hoping he would have a better chance away from her.

Now as a strapping twenty year old, Kevin was no longer that scared young boy who cowered from the bullies, but his reputation for niceness had never decreased. He was also incredibly intelligent and Avi often wondered why he stuck around at the car factory with him when he clearly belonged at Harvard or Yale.

"Hey," Avi poked Kevin in the back. "This is the stop."

The nineteen year old shoved past the other commuters so he could be the first out the train doors and Kevin followed him, apologising to the disgruntled passengers.

"This is gonna be the last time I come with you on your crazy outings," Kevin muttered in Avi's ear as the two stepped from the crowded train and onto the platform.

"No it isn't," Avi said confidently.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Cos admit it," Avi replied, putting an arm around Kevin's shoulders. "You enjoy the thrill just as much as I do."

"Or maybe I come just to make sure your dumb ass doesn't plummet to the ground."

Avi just laughed the comment off and the two exited the subway and hopped on the next bus to Campion Springs. They had been making this same journey every few months for the past three years.

The younger boy had just been surfing the web one day for his next thrill seeking activity and had stumbled upon the Campion Springs Ridgeway. The pictures showed a guy walking along a teeny tiny ledge on a cliff face about three hundred and thirty feet above ground level. The ledge had apparently been closed to the public after there were too many complaints that it was unsafe even with the mandatory harnesses.

Obviously, Avi wanted to try it out straight away and had dragged Kevin along with him.

The first time they had gone, the ledge hadn't long been closed to public access and there were still hooks in the cliff face for the boys to grab on to. Even so, they hadn't got very far before Kevin began panicking and demanded they turn back.

Now though, they were both seasoned veterans of the path and Avi often sought the thrill he desperately craved by scampering along the ledge hands free. Kevin was still the more cautious of the two but couldn't deny there was something about being that high off the ground with absolutely no safety precautions that gave him an adrenaline rush like no other.

Today the sun was the hottest it had been all summer and the two boys were sweating profusely by the time they had made the initial trek up the steep track that took them to the start of the ledge.

As always, Avi went first, dancing along the narrow path like he was some kind of tight-rope walker, keeping one hand above his eyes so he could admire the view. Kevin followed, keeping one hand firmly against the cliff face at all times, focusing more on where he was placing his feet than looking at the view.

"C'mon Kevin!" Avi called back to him. "I want to try and go even further today."

That was always the dare. Try and go just that little bit farther than they had the previous time. Today that happened to mean manoeuvring around a piece of rock that was jutting out from the side of the cliff like a horn of stone. Neither of them were sure how stable this piece of rock actually was, but they were soon going to find out.

They made quick time despite the heat and soon enough both boys were filed up, one behind the other, at what Avi had aptly named "Death Rock".

"That sounds like some horrible music genre I haven't discovered yet," Kevin quipped, trying to keep his own mood high as Avi bent down next to the rock.

"Shh!" Avi hushed him and bent his head to the spot where the rock and cliff met. He needed to check how stable this lump of stone really was. The boy may have been a thrill seeker but his ultimate goal was to not end up dead on the ground, not matter what others may have thought.

"While you're down there retie my laces, won't you?"

"Shut up!" Avi hissed again and tilted his ear even closer to the rock.

Shutting his eyes tight to try and help in block out any over sounds, he concentrated. Sure enough, after a while, a faint groan could be heard; like an old rocking chair, or an elderly arthritic person trying to stand up from a low seat.

It was coming from deep within the cliff. That was good. It meant this rock was firmly buried and wouldn't be coming loose any time soon. Should be safe enough to climb around. Should be...

"Let's go Kevo," Avi declared and immediately latched onto the rock and began climbing around.

"Yeah...this is fine, this is all good..." the younger boy could hear Kevin trying to reassure himself as he too started the stupidly dangerous climb.

There was no room for error here. One wrong move, one slip of the foot, one misjudged hand hold and there was no tiny ledge for them to land on. Next stop: morgue.

As Avi reached the furthest point of the rock, and also the thinest, he suddenly felt a strange sensation spread across his body, like something had just passed straight through him. He shivered before regaining his composure. Now was no time to be getting the jitters.

He was nearly round the pointy tip of the rock; it was the home stretch from here on out. Of course there was always the trip back which was inevitable unless they fancied camping on the cliff for the night.

A flash of brown caught his eye and Avi turned startled to see a golden eagle standing on the other ledge, it's beady eyes watching him climb with fascination. Avi was about to call out to Kevin to tell him of their visitor when there was a loud growl that emitted from the depths of the cliff and the whole rock they were clinging to shuddered.

"You said this wouldn't move!" Kevin accused him.

"It wouldn't!"

"Well it is! Get a move on you idiot," the older boy yelled as the noise got louder and the rock movement became more erratic.

Avi hurried to clamber around the last bit of rock when he saw something that made his blood run cold. The ledge where the golden eagle had originally been standing, spying on him, was now home to a different figure. One which had no right of being there at all.

A boy.

A tall blond boy was standing there on the ledge just watching him. Avi immediately opened his mouth to yell at Kevin to try and turn around but before he could utter a sound, the sky above them turned dark with clouds and the wind picked up intensely around them.

"Is this a twister?" Kevin shouted, but Avi had turned his fixation back to the blond boy.

Three things he noticed. One: his eyes. His eyes were blank orbs, the same eyes like people who were blind had. Except his eyes weren't the dull, colourless grey. They were lilac. And they were looking straight at him.

Two: he was dressed strangely. A plain white t-shirt, denim shorts and no shoes or socks. Certainly not cliff climbing attire.

And three: the bastard certainly wasn't going out of his way to help the two struggling boys. In fact he looked mighty calm about the whole situation.

Avi felt a torrent of insults build up inside him and was about to scream blue murder at the boy when Kevin bumped up behind him.

"What the hell are you doing?" the older boy cried.

"Look!" Avi replied, almost screaming the wind was so loud now, and gesturing to the the ledge.

"It's just a dumb bird Avi!"

"What? There's a-"

A bird. Just that same golden eagle who had been perched there earlier. Avi shivered again as that same feeling of something passing through him occurred and suddenly felt the urge to look up to the darkened sky.

"Oh wow," his whispered words were lost to the wind.

"Move!" Kevin began shoving him as much as he dared, absolutely terrified that they were about to fall to their deaths.

"Kevin."

"What?"

"The moon." Avi's voice sounded like he was in a trance.

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"A lunar moon."

Kevin eventually looked up and saw to his horror there was indeed a lunar moon. A blood red orb in the thunderous sky. But what the hell was the moon doing out at two o'clock in the afternoon. Even in his state of terror Kevin's analytic mind automatically started trying to work out why a lunar moon of all things had just appeared out of nowhere.

And then it began to rain. Not just a light drizzle but the type of rain which got harder and faster until it was a full blown storm all in a matter of seconds. Kevin had no idea what was going on but knew one thing. They had to get of this rock.

"Avi, if you don't move right now I am seriously going to push you off!" He wasn't being serious of course, but he was trying anything right then to get the younger boy out of his trance.

Avi turned to him and blinked, slowly coming back to the real world. He would've leapt of that rock right that instant if it hadn't been for the voice that suddenly appeared in his head.

"Better hold on tight," it cautioned and somehow Avi knew it was the voice that belonged to the boy - or possibly eagle - from before.

Then there was a thunderous boom so loud both boys were afraid their eardrums might never stop ringing. Then there was a flash of brilliant white light, that cascaded towards them and struck the very rock they clung to; blasting chipped stone in all directions and temporarily blinding the two.

And then that same voice came back to Avi, speaking almost as though he were smiling.

"Get ready. This is where things get interesting."

Then a second crash of lunar light struck the rock and Avi felt himself slipping. He was pretty sure he could hear Kevin screaming beside him but it was so loud he couldn't be sure.

And then...there was only darkness.

Dun, dun, duuuun!!