When I open my eyes, I notice that I am in the park instead of the meadow we usually train in. I get up from the bench and move I've to the swing and start swinging, waiting for the old man to come but he never does. Might as well train. I start using my powers to swing myself on the swing while lifting other objects around me. Somehow my power has raised a lot these past few days. I guess that's a good thing since it makes it easier. I do this for about an hour before walking around, wondering how to wake up. Melrick still hasn't come yet. After a while, I sit down on the bench and close my eyes, trying to wake up. After a while, I fall into the darkness.

********

I wake up to Shadow licking my face.

"Morning Shad, how did you sleep?"

-I slept well master, how about you?-

"I slept fine. Also you can call me Hope. There is no need to always call me master." I pet his head. Kate walks in with a towel wrapped around her head and with a pink and white flower dress.

"Morning Hope." She goes into her suitcase and grabs a hair dryer then plug it in the wall and starts to dry her hair.

"I'm going to shower now." I go over to my wardrobe and grab some clothes before going into the bathroom. I quickly have my shower since I hate water except for rain. Its weird but true. Rain is my favourite weather but I hate water, can't drink it. I get changed and walk out to see Kate still using hair dryer.

"You can use it after me since I noticed you don't own one." Kate speaks to me before going back to her hair which is nearly done. I cover the top of my hair with both of my hands and then drag them down to the tips before letting go to show my now dry hair. "Here Hope-" she turn around an her mouth is wide open at my now dry hair.

"Is there something wrong?" I smile innocently at Kate who is sat there looking at my dry hair.

"How did you dry your hair so quickly?"

"I'm fire how else would I dry my hair?" I wrap some hair around my finger and start twirling it before removing my finger, showing a curl.

"Lucky." Kate mumbles before she walks over to her suitcase to put her hair dryer away. I look around the room and notice Shadow isn't here.

"Shadow?" I call out and Shadow jumps out of the wall and runs up to me before sitting down at my feet.

-Yes mas- Hope- Shadow barks up at me.

"Where we're you?" I scratch behind his ear.

-in the shadow realm. The place where all the shadows stay.-

"I never knew there was a place like that." I sit down on the bed.

-not many people do but the shadows and those who control the shadows.- he replies.

"I see." Suddenly, my stomach rumbles. Kate looks up at me from her phone giggling at me before her stomach also rumbles making her blush. I simply stick my tongue out at her before standing up and stretching my arms out.

"Lets go eat?" Kate asks.

"Sure. Hey Shad can you go get my stuff from my room back at home? Thanks." He does this bow like thing before running into the wall. "Now we just wait for him to come back with my phone and wallet.

"How long will he take?" Kate jumps on the bed.

"Probably a few minutes. Now let's go outside!" I grab her wrist before blending us into an alley next to a little cafe. As soon as Kate gets her balance, Shadow comes out but with company.

"Hope where have you been! Me and the boys have been worried about you!" Jake runs up to me and grabs both of my shoulders while Shadow is sitting on the floor near Kate looking down sadly.

"I've been sleeping at Kate's house and if everybody was worried about me then why didn't Dre come visit? He knew I was going to be there."

"Dre didn't want the dog so he didn't come. We have been trying to persuade him to keep the dog but he still says no. I don't know why though. He hates having pets but why?"

"I don't know but for now I'm going to eat with Kate so let's take you home." I grab his wrist and blend us into the dining room where Luke Joel Keith and Dre are sitting, Luke pacing.

"Jake must have gone after Hope but he won't find her. She is very good at staying undercover." I lean on the doorway as soon as Dre finishes trying to wonder where Jay is.

"I'm right here guys." Jay walks to Luke and holds him in place, stopping him from pacing.

"Where have you been?" Luke glares at Jake with a look of relief.

"He's been with me. He followed my dog when he came to get some of my stuff so I brought him back. I speak up making everybody's heads shoot up to look up at me. "As much as I would like to stay, I have plans so bye. Have fun doing whatever you're doing." I'm about to walk off before Luke grabs my wrist.

"Don't go. Can't you come back to the house? Please?" He begs, looking at me with his puppy eyes.

"Not without Shadow." I try to pull out of his grip but his grip is too strong so I give up.

"But why?"

"I created him, I won't just abandon him after I took care of him. He's like my new family member."

"You can't even understand him! How is he life family?"

"I can understand him, I created him. I love that dog. I will not leave him."

"How about we make a deal then?" I raise my eyebrow at him, signalling for him to continue. "If I win against you in a sword fight then you have to come back without the dog but if you win then you can do whatever you want to do and we can't tell you otherwise." I think about before looking at him dead in the eyes.

"Today at 8pm. Your on." I say before yanking my arm out of his grasp and blend back to the alleyway next to the cafe and walk in. I look around to see Kate sitting at a table drinking some coke. I walk over to her and sit down, looking at the menu. "Sorry I'm late but I was kept up."

"Its fine." She smiles me. The waiter comes over and asks me what I want, winking at me every so often. I tell him my order, pretending that I don't get his flirting and he brings it back. I ordered a simple soup and quickly eat it, calling the waiter over and pay for the food before walking out with Kate and go back to my studio.

"What time is it?" I ask her while going to the blank wall and press a button. The wall turns around and shows a lot of weapons. I take the sword and start weighing it before I strike the sword down in the air, making Kate jump.

"Its 1:36 pm why? And what's with the sword?"

"Me and Luke have a sword fight at 8pm so I'm training. Wanna watch? If you don't then I could drop you off at Naomi's house and you can sleep over there. You will be stuck with me for a while so you might as well stay over hers for the night."

"Nah I'm gonna watch you train then watch you kick his ass." She cheers. I grin and start swinging my sword. After a while of swinging my sword and talking about school, it was 6:27. I started yawning so I take a break.

"I'm just going to rest for a bit and get my energy for later. I need to beat Luke." I grab the remote from my bed side table and turn the tv on, closing my eyes. I slowly fall asleep, feeling shadow tug the covers on me with his mouth.

********

I wake up in the training meadow and see gramps sitting under the tree. I walk over to him and sit down next to him, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Hello my child." He speaks.

"Hiya. Why wasn't you here yesterday?" I question him.

"I was busy. So tell me, how has your day been?" I tell him all about yesterday and tell him about my sword fight with Luke that I'm going to have later.

"So as soon as I wake up, I'm having a sword fight with Luke to determine what I can do. I'm not leaving Shadow by himself. He's just a puppy, only been alive for a day."

"If you want, I can teach you a few tricks?" When he said this, I jumped up so high and hugged him.

"Thank you thank you!" I repeat until he stands up, chuckling.

"Lets get started." He holds his hand out and a sword appears but it wasn't any ordinary sword. It was was dark blue with a black handle and many designs. It was beautiful. "You can also summon a sword like this you know?" I snap my head up to him, waiting for him to continue. "Everybody can summon a sword that's specialized for them with many designs. It takes a long time though and you need a plain gold sword to do so. I would teach you but if you unleash your sword here than you can never use it in the real world."

"How do I unleash it?" I wonder.

"You need to have a reason that's good enough for you to release your powers into that sword. You should always be able to call that sword at will." I hold my hand out and get a normal sword to appear. "Lets start training then"

"Lets!" We start fighting and every time I strike at him, he dodges.

"Focus. That is the best way to attack." He strikes at me an knocks the sword out of my hands.

"Your fast for an old man." I breath heavily, bending down.

"Age doesn't matter, it's skill." He's not even out of breath and we have been going at it for a while. I'm jealous.

"Ok let's go again!" I stand up and get ready to fight again but he cuts me off.

"We don't have any time left. Its time for you to wake up" I groan but hug him.

"Thank you for the lesson, I will not let you down!"

"Good luck my child." He says before I fall into the darkness.

********

"Hope wake up it's nearly time to go!" Kate shakes me so I decide to play a prank on her. I roll over still pretending to be asleep and cover myself with the covers so she couldn't see me. As soon as she rips the covers off of me, I'm not there. She gives the covers a questioning look before turning around and screaming as I shouted 'boo!' Making me fall to the ground laughing.

"That was hilarious!" After a few minutes of me laughing, I calm down and yawn, going into a really tired mood and lying down on the floor. "I'm tired" she sweatshops at my bipolar attitude before dragging me to the bed.

"Its time to go Hope it's already 8pm." When she says this, I shoot up from the ground.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner!" I grab her wrist and blend us to the mansion. I go into the training room to see Luke standing there, breathing heavily from what I'm assuming was a match against Jay. I lazily lean my head Kate's shoulder and yawn really loudly before closing my eyes.

"Your a bit later aren't you miss Summers?" I just tiredly mumble, replying to the person who spoke which was Keith.

"She was sleeping and was hard to wake up." Kate shakes me so I simply walk over to the wall of swords and grab the first one I see which was the gold.

"Your going to use a gold sword in this fight? Don't you think it would be better to use the new swords rather than the rusty gold sword?" Joel raises his eyebrow at my choice of sword so I just shrug him off and face Luke.

"You ready?" I yell at him, him nodding at me.

"Alright, you guys may only use one power *cough* Hope *cough*" I roll my eyes at him. "You will fight until the other is unable to fight or forfeits. Clear?" Luke just give a me an evil grin. There is something wrong with Luke. He would never grin like that. Maybe it was just my imagination? I nod at Jay before looking back at Luke to see a hint of red in his eyes before they turn back to normal. I immediately go into Luke's mind and search around for anything about him but I can't get into the important memories. They are locked. I get back out of his mind and Dre sets up a barrier around us. The barrier will not break even if the creator tries to take it down and if one of us breaks a rule, we will go through immense pain. The way to get out of the barrier is to either give up or you are unable to fight.

"Ready? Begin!" Dre shouts and suddenly, an evil darkness covers the dome. I hear everybody screaming our names as Luke shoots at me, missing me as I jump above him.

"Who are you?" I hiss at him.

"Its me, Luke don't you remember?" He gives me an innocent look.

"I will repeat, who are you?" He grins at me with a dark expression on his face.

"Smart girl aren't you? I was going to play your 'big brother' but you knew something was off. Smart girl indeed." I growl at him. "I am the darkness that lives inside of Luke, I'm his demon. Everybody has one. Everybody but you. The pure hearted." I look at him confused.

"Lets have some fun shall we? I haven't killed anybody so I guess you would be the first." He laughs before striking at me. I dodge some of his attacks but gain cuts from the attacks that had hit me. I jump backwards as he advances on me but something grabs my arm and holds me in place. I look at it to see a vine. Luke can control earth and plants. Suddenly, I hear a voice.

'Hope you need to help get Luke out of his confinement'

Melrick?

Yes child now listen to me, I need you to enter his mind and find the pure him and get him out. I will keep this Luke busy! I lose control of my body and notice that my body is dodging and deflecting his moves. I quickly jump into Luke's mind.

I look around the room and notice a figure chained to a wall. I walk over to the wall and notice it was Luke and I shake him awake.

"Hope? What are you doing here? How did you even get in here? This is my mind and its locked off from the outside world by that demon."

"I will explain later but right now, I need to unlock you from these chains" I start to bash the chains with a rock that I summoned somehow. I manage to get him out of the chains but he was weak and couldn't stand up.

"I'm too weak." He tries getting up but fails.

"You need to get the power to fight your demons and take control." I start to fade away and I find myself back in my own body, blocking off attacks from evil Luke. I notice that the evil darkness is still here.

I am sorry my child but I used up all of my powers and now I'm too weak. To fight. I leave it up to you now.

Thank you Melrick. You have done so much already.

I turn to face the evil Luke who is giving me an evil grin. "You don't know when to give up do you?" He chuckles darkly before slowly walking over to me. For every step forward, I takes a step back until I am stopped by a vine wrapping around my legs, going up to my arms and holding me in place with my arms held outwards from my body. "You have been a naughty girl, unlocking Luke from his chains like that and now you have to pay." He gets a knife out of his boot before coming over to me and stabs me in the arm, dragging the blade down. I scream out in pain, hearing the others scream my name from outside of the barrier.

"Hope are you okay? What's happening in there?" Kate shouts.

This Luke is evil, he took over his body and now I'm trapped and being stabbed.

"Hope said that Luke is evil and is torturing her right now. We have to help her!"

"Luke isn't evil, he is probably just winning the battle so Hope is making an excuse" I hear Dre say from outside of the dome. "The darkness is probably her doing as well.

"Oh look at that. Your family don't even believe you. I guess this means that I can cause you slot of pain without interruption now doesn't it?" He smirks before doing what he did to my arm to my other arm and both of my legs, making me scream out in pain. I feel the vines move away from my body, making me fall to the ground. He comes over and kicks me so hard that I roll away from him, stopping on my back.

"I will stop you even if I die." I spit a mixture of blood and saliva on him.

"Oh darling, I already have." He says this before stabbing me in the stomach. I let out another scream of pain. Suddenly, he shouts, "I forfeit the match now let us out!" The barrier and the darkness disappear and everybody gasps at the sight.

"What the hell Luke?" Jay shouts at him before running over to my side and pulls the sword out from my stomach. I groan in pain.

"I was being controlled like Hope said but you didn't believe Kate when she said this! I would never torture her!" Both boys start fighting before I shout at them to shut up. I look up to me left to see Joel and Keith running up to me with a first aid kit. Dre starts to clean my wounds out and I start to feel a little dizzy. I grab Luke's hand and squeeze it making him look at me.

"At least you was able to control your demon. You did good Luke." I like weakly at him before slowly closing my eyes. I hear everybody yell at me to stay awake but I was so tired so I just fell into the welcoming darkness.