Je-Min M

Justin's eyes flashed opened to the sound of laughter. A sound of joy, Justin smiled faintly as he touched the stone cold ground with his feet. He looked around his dusty shack he had lived in for the past three years. His mother had guided him and made his choices, now that she is gone he had nowhere to go.

The sound of footsteps became closer, Justin's movement became sharper and careful as he shuffled closer and closer towards the old acacia door.

"Justin, are you in there?" a somewhat familiar voice said loudly. Justin opened the door and a smiling girl came in.

"Emilia, what are you doing here?"

"The quest. The quest to defeat Bailey the Dark and claim the chronicus compass to heal the shield in the atmosphere,” answered Emilia quietly. Justin raised one eyebrow, looking concerned. He thought about the damage the hole in the atmosphere’s shield was doing and how grateful the entire planet would be if the chronicus compass had been returned to its rightful place.

"I can't, It's too much," complained Justin, shaking his head from side to side. Emilia ground her teeth in frustration.

"Our world is in danger, and it seems like you don't even care at all!" Emilia's eyes expanded at a great length. Justin felt the tears welling in his eyes. Her words stung like a bee sting.

"My mum died because of that quest. I miss her and I don't want to lose you on the way as well. You mean ... everything to me!” yelled Justin. His single teardrop shimmered in the light and splashed onto the wooden floorboards. Emilia froze and silence flooded the room.

“I’m… sorry, I never knew that she died because of it… she was so strong and confident. I don’t understand.” Emilia hugged Justin as a burst of tears broke out of her delicate pupils. “... it’s no wonder that I haven’t seen her since. I was there with her. My father was concerned that she had … perished.” Justin sighed.

“Fine, I will join you, but I’m useless. I will regret this if I lose you too.”

A deafening boom rang in their ears as they opened the door to the outside world. The sky was once blue, but now it was red.

“The central ruins; let’s run quickly!” yelled Emilia over the howling wind and the rustling of the tree leaves. “What about the house?” He asked. Justin moved back towards his house. “There’s no time!” Exclaimed Emilia, pulling Justin away from the lightning strikes. Justin and Emilia dogged some fallen tree branches. “There it is! I see it!” replied Justin, pointing at a giant boulder of pure white quartz.

Emilia slowed down and crossed the line on the ground. She walked to the middle and tilted her head down, and she began to dance. Such delicate and graceful moves, thought Justin. Emilia’s graceful moves made the stones move and guided them to the right position. She kneeled down and sprung up into the clouds in the sky and disappeared. Seconds later, Emilia glided down holding a green bubble with a tiny cloud inside. Justin was pulled in by the force of Emilia’s magic. She threw the bubble upwards and clicked her left fingers twice. Suddenly, a burst of magical spirits broke free of the bubble and surrounded Justin and Emilia, forming a bigger green bubble. The cloud that was trapped in the lime green bubble escaped. It gradually got bigger and spread onto the bubble, almost consuming it all.

Justin could see no more earth as the beautiful sight became further away.

“Lord Bailey is back out, absorbing all the energy in our solar system. We need that chronicus compass before all the energy is gone.”

“But if we do get the chronicus compass, what happens?” Justin asked.

“No one knows, but let’s make sure that Bailey doesn’t absorb the energy.”

A giant pair of dominating hands covered the sun’s rays, causing the earth to gradually freeze up.

“Urgh, Bailey’s guardian is already awakening. Stage two of the awakening is happening very soon!” Emilia bit her lips, clearly stressed. Only a small gap in the hands showed the depths of the dark realm. There were bones sticking out of the rotten dark realm and a continuous thumping noise filled the air, violently vibrating the bubble. Slowly, Emilia nugged the bubble closer and closer to the narrowing hole. It is closing faster and faster, thought Justin. Emilia could see the edges of the universe getting scrapped by the constant extension of the dark realm. A drop of lava dripped down onto the bubble, burning the consistently.

“My hands…” Sounds of sizzling became louder. Justin looked at Emilia’s hands and gasped. The giant pair of hands returned and slapped the bubble, knocking Emilia out of focus. Justin sweated as a wave of heat surrounded Justin’s face. *Grahh!*

An enormous figure escaped from the depths of the lava ground. The hands of the beast knocked a fiery boulder of flaming magma. It hit Emilia right in the forehead, strong enough to almost dislocate her neck. Her neck snapped back to its position and Emilia’s skin turned pale then stone. Her eyes were stone too. Molten magma hands grabbed her legs and pulled her into the fiery depths of the lava ground.

”Emilia, no! Not you too!” Justin shouted but only a whisper came out. Tears started to come out but they evaporated into nothing but steam.

“Well, well, well! Look who we have here. Morgan’s son has arrived with his girlfriend! Ha!”

“Bailey!” exclaimed Justin. His voice was sucked into space like a vacuum.

“You pathetic brat, bow down to me like your mother did.” ordered Bailey. “Your mother is now a guardian, protecting this dimension and there’s no going back.”

“You’re no king to me, clown face!” teased Justin, squeezing his left fist tightly. Bailey took his pale coloured mask off and dark clouds flew out, revealing his true and final form.

“You have nowhere to go!”

“I do, for Emilia, at least.” Justin clenched his fist even tighter and faced the ground.

“Justin, you don’t know anything about love! Morgan told me everything.” answered Bailey in his low voice.

“Morgan?” An enormous pair of hands clenched together and flowed, forming a giant woman.

“You’re scared, aren’t you? I thought you were strong. HAHA!”

“At least I have someone to fight for,” Justin replied.

“We’ll see about that. Morgan, fight him!”

Justin breathed harder and harder as he tried to dodge the enormous lady. “Mum, I… I can’t… I can’t fight her,” Justin gasped and his teeth clattered constantly.

“Mu...m, remember who you truly are. A kind-hearted mum, not a monster!” Justin shouted. A stream of tears came out but sizzled away as quickly. He clenched his teeth together.

“Justin… I, have to destroy!” Morgan’s voice screeched.

“Mum, listen. I know you’re still in there, just fight it.”

Morgan began to spread and kick molten everywhere. It crawled across the ground, rapidly growing and spreading towards Justin’s feet.

Justin barely dodged it.

“Mum, you can’t do this to your loving son! You do love me… don’t you?” Justin’s streaming tears stopped and water came out, cooling the ground.

“Justin, I’m sorry...I have to!”

“Fight it mum, if you can’t do it for you, at least do it for me!” Morgan’s body began to deform and her body glowed fiercely. Bailey’s eyes were glued to Justin like a bald eagle hunting for its prey.

“Do I have to do this myself?” Bailey closed his eyes impatiently shaking his head and touched the golden orb on his forehead. He opened his eyes but this time, he had three eyes. Justin stared at his third eye, it glowed like crimstane shards. “You can’t defeat me Justin. I’ve absorbed every life energy inside your pathetic ball of rock.” Justin looked out the entrance, holding his breath, he stopped. The home he loved was now a ball of lava. “You didn’t… I’ll destroy you!” Justin shouted and picked up a nearby rock and threw it at Bailey, but he dodged. The rock went through Bailey’s body and melted into the lava.

“What did you expect? I’m a spirit.” Justin growled angrily. His steamy cooked face crackled as he opened his mouth as wide as possible. “BAILEY!” With his mighty shout, a gust of wind blew the deformed body of Morgan into the endless space. Justin gasped as he watched his mother gently float away and falling apart from the impact in space. The crimstane heart cracked faster and faster due to the strong gust of wind. “Urgh, the pain!” Bailey’s third eye closed and sealed itself up. Justin grabbed another nearby rock, but this time it was a sharp one. He ran towards Bailey and pointed the sharp object towards his heart. “This is what you get for hurting my mother and Emilia!” He struck the rock into Bailey, constantly moving it around and pulling it out. Bailey froze and stopped breathing. *POOF* Bailey’s body blew away; a shield and bottle formed in the air and fell onto the ground.

“J..Justin, what happened?” Justin immediately turned around and ran towards the cooling statue and hugged Emilia’s heated body. “What happened?” Emilia coughed as the rest of her body reverted back to normal. “It’s ok, I defeated Bailey. He is gone forever.” Answered Justin as he carefully handed the shield and jar to Emilia’s safe hands. Once again, Emilia danced and a ray of soothing energy blasted out of her body and struck the crimstane heart dead. A lime green bubble appeared next to Justin. “Let’s go back, this place gives me the creeps.” Replied Justin as he looked out the hole that Morgan fell out of. Emilia nodded and held Justin’s left hand and pulled him into the bubble. A tiny cloud spread itself onto the bubble, almost consuming it and guided it back to the central ruins.

Justin looked through the misty clouds and could see that earth was back to normal, he sighed in relief. Emilia popped the bubble carefully and held on to Justin’s hands to help him get down safely. Emilia walked towards a statue in the corner of a tree and offered the two items to it. “This is the moon Goddess.” Emilia said quietly. The statue began to twitch and move. Its stone hands took the to items and compressed them together. It fused into the Chronicus Compass. The statue pushed the compass into the gap where its heart used to be. A stream of energy shot up into the air, piercing through the atmosphere and struck the Dark realm. The realm inverted back into a shield to protect earth. Its surrounded itself over the earth like a hollow shell. The goddess fell still.

Emilia turned around, hugged Justin and burst into tears. “Thank you!”

“Shh. Don’t cry. I’m here.” Justin said quietly. The sun set slowly behind them, the owls began to hoot. The moon lit brightly as they held hands and went out out of the forest and walk to wherever their legs took them.