10.

It has been difficult ... certainly has not been easy and when it seems that an element of peace, joy and freedom has arrived, difficulty once more makes a return.

Majella Smith, reunited with her father and sister, travelling on a bus has been visited by another father is experiencing intense pain. This intense pain is not her own. It is pain dished out by Darkness over millenniums of time upon an unsuspecting world now witnessed by a child whose time on earth has never allowed her to be a ... child. This pain, it is rushing to her, rushing in her, rushing through her and as she screams with the agony of others she also vanishes.

She continues to scream but not for much longer for she realizes that the pain coming at her and going through her is doing so no more. Something else momentarily is to occur. Indeed, the pain was never her own, more over it was a sharing of the evils imparted by he who has come to her. Yeah, Majella Smith at sixteen years of age has been reunited with her biological father and one of her sisters after having been taken from them three years prior.

On the way to what is to be their home the Smith family are confronted, more precisely Majella is confronted by someone or something that has always been with her without previously making itself known to her.

Darkness had come to her, a creating father, and she briefly felt every ounce of pain Darkness has ever dished out. She is the last of nine he has to claim or win over and to that he brings with him a lesson or demonstration. Darkness has sent Majella away, to show her a little of what is to come. That pain she felt is gone as is Darkness gone, as is her dad, her sister and the very bus she had been travelling home upon.

That pain that had been coming at her, it did not just vanish as such; rather it spun around her in a tornado of blurred instances and images. She became enveloped in the eye of a storm, a storm made up of instances of pain gathered from and all throughout time. Individual instances of pain and torture momentarily step forward, sticking out clearly showing someone's moment of horror and terror before rejoining the spinning tornado.

Images of war, death, torture and cruelty are showing themselves to her. Orphaned children cry having witnessed the moment they become orphaned; people brutally inflict pain on others incapable of defending themselves. Buildings collapse, avoidable accidents occurring, the worst of humanity is seen.

So much destruction is shown to her, destruction she feels she may be able to control or inflict if and when a time comes for her to do so. It would be more control or put right rather than inflict but then again, if someone were deserving ...

This moment right here is almost a moment of training, Darkness imparting to her what it is she is and what it is he expects from her, what he expects her to deliver in the decades to come. He could simply just come right out with it all but this way he feels is more ... effective.

The spinning and all that it holds, soon comes to a halt then there is silence, complete silence and she is still and unmoving, on her knees almost in despair. Majella can see that she is not alone in this stillness, not by a long shot. Fearfully she begins to move her head around to take in her new surroundings.

She indeed has been transported off from the bus she had been on. In the place she has come to, she is being watched, looked at by many faces none of which she can recognize by just looking back at them though if she really were to take the time to look properly then there may be some faces here with which she does recognize.

Lost in numerous ways, this is what Majella is in this moment. Where is she? Why is she here? The how she is here is the easy part or at least a part which can be guessed at, but with everything as is, it is difficult to think straight. It is difficult to think of anything as being easy in any way and that not only goes for the current moment but for the last couple of years too and possibly her existence as a whole.

Majella stands and begins to do a full three sixty in an attempt to take in her surroundings a little better and the faces for the most part soon stop paying attention to her. There are however a few in particular who continue to look on, eight of them to precise, all of whom are girls or is there nine? For the briefest of moments there appears to be a set of twins. No, one girl looked as if she were two for a moment or so, how odd.

The clothing Majella is now wearing is different, much different than what she had been wearing on the bus. The rags she acquired at the shelter are gone, replaced by or transformed into a navy-dark blue coloured bellbottomed strapless ball-gown of a dress.

She moves to stand in the center of a wooden floor, flooring that does not encompasses the whole room she currently is in, if anything it probably takes up a little more than a quarter of the room. From what she can see, carpeting begins where the wood ends. Behind her is a stage where a big brass band patiently awaits the moment when they will get to delve deep into a different kind of mood where a swing into action can be made.

This place, it is a ballroom, where she apparently is a guest or is to be a guest at some kind of specific event and she has come to a point where the evening is about to begin. Yeah, there is a definite feeling that this is a glance at a future moment, a moment that is to belong to her and these other girls, a coming-of-age moment where Majella is sure to come to understand all of what she is and all she is not yet fully aware of.

The clothing though, it is so not her. She feels it relevant to this particular event and she feels that the dress has either been made for her or chosen for her by someone close to her; in all that this moment is, she'd rather not have to ever be here no matter if this future moment will bring her answers to questions that potentially go back a long time.

A member of the group of eight, dressed in dark red and black elegance, comes to her with a direct intent. 'You are early you know. It is not time for you to be here, not yet. You have got work to do first. Save the boxer and burn the big man in white.'

'Excuse me?'

'You heard me. Save the boxer and burn the big man in white, see the power you have within you then you will be on your way to join us for real.'

This girl backs away and as she does Majella can see Darkness walk out onto the center of the stage. He is not hidden by shadow; he is out in the open, as clear as day. As this stage entrance is made, people gather round where Majella stands and they place their focus upon the stage. Darkness turns his back to the gathering then indicates to the musicians to begin and music does begin. Brass, string and wood instruments belt out sounds in unison and a dance begins big band style. This is indeed a big ball style gathering and she is far too early, a year or two too early.

A spinning sensation returns and begins to take her away. The big band music begins to drown out; its sound becomes warped and slowed as it does drown out. At first it is those around her that are spinning but it only really seems as such for they are going about their own activities. The room begins spinning or offering the illusion of such and she too soon is spinning.

Around and around and around, so different and in a way so similar too to what brought her here, this current spinning, it is nauseous but not painful like the first time round. She wants to drop back down onto her knees before the spinning makes her fall over but the spinning movement itself keeps her on her feet. Colours collide into a kaleidoscopic blur where it had all been grey last time round. Once again Majella is taken away to somewhere unfamiliar.

A long empty corridor of pure white light that soon fades into a dull grey, if Darkness took her to a future ball, has something else brought her here? A whooshing breeze passes her, and a sound begins to rise. There are others near, many others though as it is, she cannot see anyone else. Somewhere beyond the corridor is an arena, an arena where modern day gladiators have come together to compete. She is certain she knows why she is here. Save the boxer, burn the big man, well the first part for sure, the second if it presents itself.

Two different feelings flood her, one of which is in being here for she knows once again she is too early. This is another moment of what is yet to come.

Still in her ball gown, she moves down the corridor and into a room on the right. She sees the boxer and he can see her, a prophecy non-verbally told or briefly seen and she vanishes before anything else can occur for she is indeed too early. She is returned to the bus, returned to her father, her living father and to her sister as they are about to make an exit.

That boxer ... she thinks to herself. What did Sammy say his name was? ... Paul Malone? ... That doesn't matter just yet for right now she has family to be with.

That dress she has a dislike for begins to morph back into what she had been given to wear back at the shelter; soon she is off the bus and indeed in the company of her father and her sister. There is someone standing close-by ... a boy from her past, aged the three years or so she has been gone. Distracted briefly by her family she looks away and then back, he is gone, no longer in a position to be seen.

Majella, a girl whose life has been set out ahead of her, a girl who has a path to follow. She sees some of this path and there is a willingness to walk that path to some degree. She feels that there are turns-offs, other directions she will want to go. Darkness may not want her to take turns, she will ultimately have the choice but when turn-offs do show themselves ... which turn will she take?

There are alleyways and shadows with which she will want to stay away from, no matter the curiosity she has to see down them, the curiosity she will have to see what is beyond the shadows, no matter what answers may be hidden in the alleys. Indeed, Darkness wants her to go one way while her own heart wants to take a different route.