CHRONICLES OF THE FOURTH HORSEMAN

OUR LITTLE GIRL ALL GROWN

"Hello, I am Alex...," he said looking straight into her eyes."I am Alice but my family calls me Ally," the two hit it off almost immediately after.I the meantime, Tom, John and I were preparing for the last part of our tests which was end of the year's projects.We were also preparing to go home for the festive seasons in two weeks time.Ally was also winding up her Senior year.She was preparing for prom and was going around looking for some cash to get a dress she had seen and thought was perfect.Nobody had asked her to the prom yet.

Her classmates feared her as she lived military style.To her, happiness was doing what made her comfortable not what pleased others.As we all know, highschool is all about looking cool to others, being the strongest or being in lucrative positions.You know like the cheerleaders and footballers and the nerds.Ally was a nerd but not the kind people wanna hang around.She always had her guards up and she made boundaries impossible to close.She only cared for what worked for her.Back at the bunker and the mansion, her rooms were pretty similar.Her favorite color was purple and that meant everything around her revolved around the color.From her be covers to the pictures on the walls. She was not one of those girlish girl's and anyone would understand why she found it difficult to make friends of any gender.

She believed girls were too easily distracted by simple things.She also believed boys were, self destructive and full of themselves.She therefore ended up choosing the class pet and studies.They had nicknamed nerdypet and she hated it but didn't care enough to anything about it.Back at home, she was a handful.She wanted things done in a certain way and was willing to go out of her own way to ensure it.She was also a bit playful around Ophie.She loved seating on him when he was transformed as she found his skin soothingly cold and squishy.Ophie hated it at first but by now he was used to it and he would sometimes transform purposely to make a squishy seat for her. When it came to training, she made sure to give it all she could get.She was by far ranking second from Tom.She was very competitive but she also knew when to stop.

We had watched her grow from a girl who thought education was dumb to a girl who could give anything to learn something new everyday.She also had grown out of her anger and self pity to a strong independent and strong lady.We no longer feared her burning the bunker or the mansion down in one of her fury moments.Though sometimes I wished she could lower her guard a little and live her life even if for just a single day, I was happy she never went out having boy troubles or a broken heart.I had grown to love her almost the same way I loved Ophie.

She was still angry that her family never went out in search of her but she tried her best not to show it.They were more or less one of the reasons why she was pushing beyond her limits everyday.I still wished I could do anything to make that pain and those bitter memories go away but I knew she was the only one capable of doing that.I also knew it was nearly impossible, even if she was willing to leave all of it behind, those people were still a part of her and she could not wipe or clean that off.

The only down low about her was her love of sleep.Ally could sleep through an earthquake, or even a hurricane.She really loved sleeping and she never apologized for it.Her alarm clock was fully functional but she still had three more alarms which were five minutes apart set on her phone.On top of all that, she still relied on Ophie to make sure she was not late for school or training.If only you could hear her complain how unfair it was to wake up at 10:00 in the morning on a sunday after she had just woken up from a ten hours nap.She was however punctual for everything else provided it was not a morning commitment as she could never imagine sacrificing he beauty sleep for anything that wouldn't make her rich.

That was how I knew something was up when we had to wait for her for over an hour after school.It was never like her to be late.In fact, we always found her at our agreed meeting point and she was the one who did the waiting.That evening, we were all tired but most especially Tom.He had had a rough previous night and an even worse day. Between cow brains, exam blues, d**g tests and false tumor results, all he wanted was to go home and rest.He was glad the day was finally over but when we got to our meeting spot, Ally was not there.

We figured maybe Geo or Miss Griffin had come for her but they confirmed they hadn't.We knew she could never take the bus as she could never get to the bunker in time.Phanu flew to check whether she had gone to the mansion but she was not there.I had promised to trust her and therefore never listen in on her using my angelic powers and I was not planing on breaking that promise.Her phone was still off and we concluded on waiting for her.Maybe she had found herself in detention or something.It would be her first and the thought of that gave some sort of an impossible satisfaction.Maybe she was a real girl after all.I smiled to myself.

She showed up about an hour and some minutes later.There was no denying that she looked different.She was overly jovial and she started smiling meters away from us.We were all surprised but we smiled back."Hey Tommy, hello John, ooh hello Phanu...Azzy, I missed you, how was your day?," she was not looking for answers and she didn't wait for any."Lets get going and sorry I am late," she had added almost immediately.We didn't want to ruin her moods and for that we just started on our way home as we hoped she would tell us more about her moods later.

The bunker was quiet except for the soft country music.Ophie loved soft music and so did the bunker and Geo.Ally had forced herself to accept Ophie's strange likings and it was going well so far.The two had not broken the woofer in the last few months.On arrival, Ally ren to Ophie and hugged him before putting her hand forward as if she was asking for something.Ophie went straight to his pocket and gave her a twenty.She smiled and started to her bedroom."Who is he?," Ophie asked."His name is Alex.He is new in the school and he just beat me in chemistry," she said with a gigantic smile on her face be before hopping across the floor to her room.

"I have never seen her this happy in forever," Squishy said.Ophie just looked around and said," I never thought she was capable of feeling happy and showing it.," I was just happy to know she had finally found a date to prom and that it was not just a date, it was someone she liked.Her smile explained all that.The evening I had pictured to be long and boring suddenly turned into a happy one.We enjoyed dinner and the first time in a long while we all ate together.No one was on their phones or a book or minding some other business.All one could hear were chewing mouths and plate noises.

We talked a bit about Alex and Ally described him as weird smart and handsome guy whom she couldn't wait to beat in the finals.She also said something about dreaming that he had a beard that was similar to that of monkey king.That sort of disturbed her but Squishy mentioned it was just a dream.She also said that Alex will be taking her to prom and we had to be on the mansion that day.She could not bring him to the bunker.For some reason I felt eager and could not wait to see the guy who had flipped a happy switch in Ally's life.

If course we had to listen to her talk about how Alex was special and different from all the other boys in her class.The story should have been boring but we found it amusing.The way she made circles on the table with her fingers, the way she smiled throughout the long lane story.The way she insisted how unique and special Alex was.The fact that she didn't seem offended by the fact that someone had beaten her in chemistry. The one subject she had held a constant lead on for the last two years.She still hoped to beat him in the finals but the fact that she was not all mad about being the second was fascinating.We listened to her for three hours straight as she told and repeated over and over again.

It was not until after she was too sleepy to tell any more that we realized it was almost midnight.Ally and Nandi went to bed while as usual I the others followed one after the other until it was just Ophie, Phanu and I.Ally's story had taken over the bunker to a point even Ophie forgot to tell an important thing he had waited all day to tell.He didn't remember it until every one else had already left the hall.We were talking about mokey king beard and why Ally would have such a dream when Ophie seemed to suddenly remember something "Hey Azzy, talking of monkey kings beard, there is something I meant to tell you earlier but I forgot.Earlier in the local channel news their was a story about something that was killing dogs and people said all they saw was a huge dog that kind of looked like monkey king.It could just be a coincidence or maybe Ally is having one of those mixed up dreams where she is supposed to be seeing something else but her mind is way too engaged on this Alex guy that she can not see anything clearly.Either way I feel like it is important to check it out l, just for the sake," Ophie seemed concerned and whenever that happened it meant something somewhere was not right. Ophie's instincts never failed and I was sure they were not just about to fail now.If he said something was wrong, then something was wrong and I promised to check it out and Phanu offered to help.

That night we made a few rounds before going to bed.We found a few dead dogs but there was no monkey king guy or a huge stray dog.After we were satisfied whatever it was was already gone, we went back to the bunker and planned to check out the next night.Phanu still thought staying out a bit longer would bear fruit but I knew all too well that she was avoiding to go back to the bunker where she would have to lay on her bed staring on the ceiling seeing nothing but having nothing better to do.The snow was beginning to fall and that meant that the temps were lowering too.Outside was a bit uncomfortable and I was not looking forward to staying out for long.I had to convince Phanu to go back indoors as I still didn't trust her being outside alone.I had gotten too used to being around her and I feared the anger sent to find her would find her and I would not be around to help her.I wanted her close to me all the time so I could "Protect" her.

We had just gotten back and the first thing we heard was Ally's screams.We rushed to her bedroom where she was kicking with all her feet and hands, she was sweating all over and she looked genuinely scared. "Poor thing must be having the worst nightmare of all times.We should probably wake her up," Phanu said." I wouldn't do that if I were you," Squishy said.Walking over to Ally and holding her hand.He stroked her hair gently and she seemed to be relaxing."It is not a nightmare, it is a vision and if you don't let her finish, she will probably have the same same dream the next time she goes to sleep.It will be over soon," Squishy added.Before he could even finish, Ally jolted up to a seating position and asked for her sketch book and a pencil.She always had them on the side cabinet of her bed.

Squishy gave them to her and she started sketching what I could tell was an ugly a*s magix even before she were halfway through.The creature has the body of a human, legs and hands of a wolf, its face looked more like a combination of a human and wolfs face which ended up with a scary look with the hair that seemed pretty similar to monkey kings.Phanu and I looked at each other but then looked away.By then all the others had joined us and the room was somewhat overcrowded.Squishy took the book from Ally's had and slowly helped her back to sleep.Apparently the girl could even sleep through her own horrors.All the while she sketched, she was still asleep and Squishy could tell. Maybe that was the reason he never let go of her even after she got up into a seating position.

After she was back to sleep, this time peacefully, we all cleared out and started examining the sketch.From those hands to those others the book was handed over until it was finally on mine.I studied it for a few minutes before deciding to look through the other pages and found out she had drawn it seven times over.A scared look formed on Ophie's face.For the next few minutes, Ophie brought the group up to speed and we told them about our patrol.We all agreed to look for a solution the next day but in the moment we all needed to rest.We had not slept the previous night and the one before and we could not keep going if we were too tired to.We also couldn't keep on relying on the special tear as Geo had make it clear that the magic d**g was also addictive.

One by one we cleared off the hall and back to our bedrooms.My last thought as I fell asleep was the fact that we were about to have a few rough days if not weeks.Ally's vision were always about something serious.Something the world has to be prepared for as it would take more than it had to make it through.The fact that she saw this magix was an indication that what would follow would need both tactic and strength.The first thing I would do the next day was hit the books and at least have a clue of whatever the hell we were dealing with.