Samantha

"So this is the sky..." I murmured, checking out my surroundings. The beach was pretty, I'll give it that, but I saw nothing magical about this area.

"Looks like a simple beach to me."

"But it's not." said an old man. "The sky is a portal between places and also a place of concentration itself. If you thought hard enough, you could change your entire perception of this place, and walk away into a completely different location, while we would remain here."

I focused on him closely and saw that he was the same man I met at the library.

"Hey, I remember you!" I started. "I beat you and stole your book!"

The others gave him a confused look and he blushed.

"Well, you didn't beat me, and I let you take the book so we could find you when the time was right."

"Does this mean you are going to prosecute me for using magic?" I asked, defensively. I knew I was outnumbered, but I would at least try to kill him before they all took me out.

The other guy, Edriss, shook his head.

"No. After watching your ordeal, it's clear we have something much worse to deal with, that beast, and especially that little girl."

One of the female mages turned towards me.

"What has possessed her to reanimate the dead and awaken a curse? Where did she get her powers from in the first place?"

"My sister." I explained, getting tired of talking about this.

"My family found magic and used it to get everything we wanted, which caused the curse to first appear. It was determined to kill all of us so I stripped myself off my original powers while looking for ways to defeat it. My sister, on the other hand, refused to give up her powers and the life she led. I thought she had actually done it when our house was destroyed and the little girl appeared but I was wrong. I'm not even sure if my sister actually loved that girl, or if the girl was solely there as a backup plan if the curse got her."

Edriss waved his hand, and suddenly we were at my house, standing in the middle of the street. Before I could have a heart attack, the old man said,"Don't worry, we're here, but undetectable and completely safe."

Edriss snapped his fingers to draw my attention. "Your entire house was destroyed when the curse ended, right?"

I nodded.

"And now it's been completely restored. Do you have any idea what she intends to do with the house once her plan plays out?"

"No," I snapped, irritated. "Can't any of you find out? Can't one of you see the future or something?"

"Most people don't practice that type of magic anymore. It's dangerous, and it develops into it's own curse within itself." said one lady.

"And besides," said Edriss. "That's not the reason we're here."

A red wave of light outlined  everyone's bodies, including mine, and the our surroundings twisted and warped into an entirely different location. The smell of the ocean was gone. The cool breeze was replaced by a harsh chilling wind. We were in a city, standing on the sidewalk next to a black and grey skyscraper. Some of the other mages weren't on the sidewalk, they were standing in the middle of the street.

"This is why we are using the sky." Edriss pointed to the building.

"The vampires are busy. They're preoccupied with their curse, preoccupied with finishing off your werewolf boyfriend, and preoccupied with killing themselves. This is all works in our favor."

"Why would they be killing themselves?" I asked.

"There are two reasons why," said the old man.

"But first, I think this has gone on long enough without a proper introduction. My name is Harry. Edriss has already introduced himself. The others are Mario, Christopher, Lisa, and-"

"I don't care about them," I snapped, while avoiding eye contact with them."Tell me about the vampires."

Harry walked past me and pointed upwards at the top floor.

"Right now, at this very moment, the vampires from the Midwest territory have come for a... a meeting." He said with a smile.

"What are they meeting about?"

Now Harry, Edriss, and all the other people I neglected to learn about looked at me like I was dumb.

"The werewolves!" Harry exclaimed.
"Your boyfriend brought them back, and now, they're multiplying like rats."

"But they aren't the only werewolves," I protested. "There were still a couple scattered about this territory, and there's still about a couple hundred in the entire United States."

"That may be true, but if the leader of the werewolves, the strongest and fastest, came from this territory, you can be sure they'd be trying to weed them out.

"Harry makes a good point." said Edriss. "There are three werewolves here that are so strong they can't even be killed, only hidden and contained. They've escaped, and it's obvious who their coming for."

"So, to punish them on their failures," said one woman. "The Midwest has come to kill the Western head of vampires and to take over the territory."

"What is this red thing around us?" I asked, waving my hand and watching the red light grow brighter.

"It's a protection shield. We may be in the sky, but the vampires are the ones controlling it." said Edriss.

"For now," said the woman. "The only reason we're able to use it is because these Midwest vampires traveled through the sky. They access it from a physical object, unlike us, who can access it with our magic. It's an unusual type of object. It can take the shape of anything it's beholder desires. Knowing them, it's probably a ring, a necklace, or a choker. They overheated the thing and now have to wait for it to cool down. That's why we're safe now. But now, once they kill each other, they will fall apart. Your boyfriend will probably take out any remaining vampires with his new friends and the other vampire leaders will scramble to find someone to head the two territories.

"So you brought us here just to spectate?" I asked.

"No." said Edriss. "We're here to steal the cufflet and destroy it, after the dust settles and everyone's dead."

Jamie

The inside of the building was quieter than I expected. There where no guards to stop us, but plenty of people where moving about. We caught a couple of stares, but no one bothered us. People were leaving in droves.

"Where the hell are they going?" Donovan asked aloud.

"Don't know," said Isaac. But the majority of them are vampires, I can feel it. My natural instinct is to lunge at them, but something's wrong."

He was right. They weren't bothering us, this was obviously a set up.

"Let's try to get to the top and see what they do." I told the others. We made our way over and one lady pushed her way past us in a hurry. Donovan almost took her for a threat and was about to attack her, but Marissa held him back.

"Stop, idiot." She hissed. "These aren't our enemies."

"Then who are?!" He growled back. We've passed by vampire after vampire and not once have any of..." His voice trailed off has he looked at something behind us.

We turned and saw a tall man with brown skin and a navy blue suit. Unlike everyone else, he was looking right at us, smiling and unconcerned.

"Allen, right? That's your name?"
He turned his attention towards Allen, who was at the back group. Allen stepped forward and walked towards him. I could tell he gearing up to fight. I wanted to tell him to hold back, but I'd doubt it would have any effect.

"Yes it is." Allen said bluntly, eyes narrowed, watching the man's every move.

"How do you know me?" He asked.

"Oh, we all know you around here." He said with a grin.

"Where do you get your information from?" Allen said angrily.

The man looked surprised.
"Hmm? Shaye hasn't told you about Gabriel by now? I'd have thought he'd fill you in on everything. It doesn't matter now, everything is all set."

Allen grabbed the man's jacket and slammed him against the wall.

"If you don't tell me who you are and what's about to happen I'm gonna-"

"My name...is London." The man interrupted him. His entire expression changed now, he had anger in his eyes.

"I don't like what's about to happen any more than you do."

He grabbed Allen's shirt and his hands burst into flame. Allen wrenched himself from the man's grip and tried to punch him, but the entire man's body became a wall of flame.

He dissipated and the tiny little remnants of the fire scattered everywhere. Allen turned to us, his shirt scorched with two big holes.

"I can fix that," Shaye offered. "Or rather, I can make it look like that never happened."

Allen looked furious. "I really couldn't care less." He told Shaye. "I just want to find Danielle and finish this.

Shaye made a small gesture towards Allen and his clothes magically restored themselves.

"Let's get in the elevator."

We all walked quickly towards the elevator, this time, without any surprises. The building had twenty floors, and there were two extra buttons that were blank, along with a emergency button. They all had a white backlight that was a little dimmed out on the top floors. Below the buttons was a black glass panel, and right next to them was a sign that said:

Levels 17-20 have faulty wiring, and as a result, the door will not open automatically.
You must push the button with the door open signal when the elevator stops. Thank You, and have a nice day.

"Which one do we click on?" Marissa asked Shaye.

Everyone looked at Shaye, but he seemed unsure himself.

"Last time I was here, I went to 19, but I'm not sure if..." His voice trailed off as he kept gazing at the buttons. His eyes started to glow and it seemed as if he forgot we existed.

Marissa let out an exasperated sigh. She shoved him out of the way, breaking his concentration. She pressed 19 and the elevator started to move upwards.

"No! Why did you do that?!" He exclaimed.

"You were taking too long." She snapped. "Did you forget why we came here?"

The elevator jerked to a stop, making everybody jump except Shaye.

"Did you forget that I've already been here?" He snapped back.

"I don't even know if this will work again. The second I stepped off the elevator, guards were stopping me from going into a certain room. They stopped me then, when I was alone. Who knows what they'll do now?"

Marissa kept her silence, choosing to stare at the sign instead of us. She reached for the buttons again but Shaye reached his hand out.

"It says that 17-20 have faulty wiring, but they don't, you just need a special clearance to get to them." Shaye pulled out a card.

"That's why I'm not sure this will work anymore. And there is no door signal on any of these buttons." He pointed to the blank ones.

"This is some sneaky crap that Isaac would think up. I would never dare to press these."

He held up his card against the black glass and waited. It flashed red while scanning the card, but then it turned purple.

Shaye backed up and bumped into me.

"What?" asked Allen. "What's wrong now?"

Shaye swallowed. "The last time I was here, it lit up green."

Everyone looked at each other as the door started to open. It creaked and stopped midway, big enough to see through, but none of us could've squeezed through it except maybe Marissa. Looking through it, we couldn't see anything. It was almost completely dark with a flickering light.

"Allow me." said Donovan. We all moved around so he could teach the elevator door. He cracked his neck and popped his knuckles for no apparent reason, then proceeded to try to stretch his arms in this tiny elevator.

He almost smacked Isaac in the face, but Isaac caught his hand and squeezed it so hard it looked like he was trying to crush it.

"It's cramped enough in here as it is. Hurry up and get us out." He growled.

Donovan yanked his hand away and gave Isaac a hard stare. He then grabbed both sides of the elevator door and forced them back so hard they broke through the elevator walls. The lights behind the buttons completely went out but nobody was paying attention to that.

Outside of the elevator was not a room. It was barely a hallway. The entire floor of this level was completely gone.  There was nothing but a huge trench of darkness below, and it looked like it could go on forever. Most of the lights on the ceiling were out, and the few that worked were barely on, flickering in and out, hardly illuminating anything. At the end of the hallway  hallway were three rooms without doors. There were no signs and no buttons anywhere.

"So Shaye, was it like this the last time you came?" asked Allen.

"Of course not." said Shaye, mystified. "Give me a second to figure this out."