“Help!” Jacob screamed, his voice echoing around the hall.

  “No one will hear us,” Joanna said in a low tone, for she had given up on being rescued.

  “It doesn’t matter, someone will find us,” Jacob said, refusing to give up all hope.

  “Help!” he yelled even louder, tugging on the ropes which held him bound, as a man in a black hoodie and black mask walked in.

  “Now, now, don’t scream, let’s be quiet as we wait for Crow,” he said, as he stuffed their mouths with pieces of cloth.

  “That’s better,” he added, pulled out a smartphone and took a few selfies with them. He seemed to be having fun.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll use this as my lockscreen wallpaper.”

  Jacob struggled more.

  He then relaxed himself, and shook his head at Joanna apologetically.

  “Aww, he’s sorry he can’t get you out of this mess,” the masked man said when, “Sir, I just received word that Crow has arrived, but we can’t sense her so it’s possible she used an invisibility spell. A strong one,” another masked man, standing at the door said.

  They all had the same outfits on, and seemed to be of the same height with one another which kept Jacob wondering if they were the same person.

  Meanwhile, Crow, Jackson and Anna had arrived at the entrance of the castle. There were two guards stationed up ahead at the very gates and five dragons soared high in the dark skies.

  “What do we do now?” Anna asked, looking at Mrs. Crow who seemed to be focused on the guards up ahead.

  “All we have to do is walk right past them without making any sounds,” Crow said, and she packed her thick glossy hair with a hairclip.

  “Wait, I think that dragon is coming down,” Anna said trembling, taking a few steps back as a black dragon descended from the skies.

  “Don’t move and don’t breathe,” Crow said, readying her stance.

  “Dragon landing!” one of the guards in the castle towers screamed.

  “Dragon landing, probably wants to take a shit!” Another guard screamed, in an attempt to pass across the message.

  With a THUMP, the dragon landed on the ground, sending soft waves of vibration all around the area. It stood upright, its height measuring about thirty-five feet.

  Whoa, that is one huge dragon, Jackson thought to himself as the dragon walked towards them. It walked past them, nearly stepping on them in the process, after which it stopped and defecated on the floor.

  “That’s disgusting,” Anna whispered to Crow, who was as still as a rock.

  “Don’t make a sound,” she said as the dragon turned around and approached them.

  “Stay calm, it can’t see us,” Crow mouthed to Jackson and Anna, as it stopped right in front of them and lowered its head, its nostrils a few feet from her hair.

  “I hate it when they do that sniffing thing, hey get back into the skies!” one of the guards screamed at the dragon which ignored him and kept staring directly at Mrs. Crow.

  It breathed heavily, so heavily that the air from its nostrils sent Crow’s hair flying all around, scattering it in the process. It stepped even closer and peered at her, seeming to squint as if it knew she was there but couldn’t see her.

  The dragon then let out a loud thunderous cry, spread its wings and took to the skies, the wind from the flapped wings of the dragon throwing Jackson, Crow and Anna a few feet further from the castle gates.

  “Oi, be careful next time!” one of the guards at the gates said, as he dusted himself.

  “We were lucky it didn’t breathe fire,” Crow said, as she helped the other two up.

  “You said no one would be able to see us,” Annabelle said, as she dusted herself with a frown on her face.

  “Well, dragons are different, let’s go.”

  As they approached the gates and started to think of how to enter the castle unnoticed, a guard opened the gate from inside the castle compound.

  “Hey look, the boss took a picture of the captives and sent it to all of us,” a guard said, as he showed a picture of Jacob and Joanna to the guards at the gate.

  Crow, Jackson and Anna used the opportunity to sneak into the castle compound, trying as much as possible not to make body contact with the guards.

  The castle was tall, and the towers beside it were about sixty feet tall.

  “That’s a really tall tower,” Jackson said, staring up with his mouth wide open.

  “We have to find out where they are, there’s only six minutes left before we become visible,” Crow said, as she stood incredibly still, trying to listen for irregular heartbeats.

  “I heard those kids are pretty scared,” a guard said to another, as they strolled round the compound.

  “Yeah, I was told they are locked up in the main hall and tied to a pillar,” the other guard replied, kicking the short dark grass as they walked.

  “The main hall sounds big. Something that big should be on the ground floor I guess. I don’t really know much about castles,” Crow stared at the castle’s entrance which seemed to be unguarded.

  “Let’s go rescue your friends.” They all jogged into the castle, Anna and Jackson behind her.

  “There it is,” Crow said, pointing at a wooden door at the far end of the entrance with a sign on it which read: MAIN HALL.

  The hallways were strangely empty, but Crow didn’t pay much attention to it as they all ran towards the main hall. They arrived at the door and, “Here we go, we only have three minutes, after which we have to vanish with or without your friends unless we want to stay and die,” she said.

  She took a deep breath and gently pushed the door open.

  “There they are,” Anna whispered, but her whispers echoed throughout the large hall.

  Crow covered Anna’s mouth, signaling her not to make a sound due to the echoing of the room.

  “Mmph,” Jacob muffled, and struggled to break free on hearing the echoes of Anna’s voice.

  They rushed towards them and untied them, ignoring the fact that they were invisible.

  “Anna is that you?” Joanna asked, as she tried to touch Anna who she clearly couldn’t see.

  “Yes but it’s a long story,” Anna replied, giving Joanna a bright smile as she gently rubbed her cheeks.

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  “Oh I can see you now,” Jacob said, as he stood to his feet.

  “I’ll kill that guy that brought us here,” he added, making a fist in the air.

  “Wait, we still have thirty seconds left, they shouldn’t be able to see us yet,” Crow said in confusion.

  “We have to leave now,” she said, as she stretched her arms wide open, but nothing happened.

  “Why isn’t it working?” She kept trying to vanish, but nothing happened.

  “This is bad, very bad,” Annabelle said fretfully.

  Mrs. Crow was about to suggest they all ran out the door when,

  TAP…TAP…TAP……

  Someone started to clap. He seemed to be at the other side of the door.

  “Who’s there?!” Mrs. Crow asked boldly, as the door was gently pushed open and a masked man walked in.

  “Looks like I have you right where I want, Crow of the Blackwater,” he said, the empty hall projecting his voice. He reached for his mask and slowly took it off, revealing a part of his face.

  Mrs. Crow eagerly watched, half expecting the man to be her brother as he slowly took off the hood. He was a middle aged man with brown facial hair. The hair on his head was also brown in color and his eyes were blue.

  “Now I have you where I want,” he slowly said, a crooked smile on his face, as he pulled out a sword from its sheath.

  “Oh don’t bother, I had all magical powers in the castle dampened,” he added, as he watched Crow tirelessly make efforts to vanish.

  “Well, I hope you like the picture I took with you,” he said to Jacob and Joanna, as he snapped his fingers, and in no time the hall was filled with about three hundred men.

  “Were you the one in my dreams?” Annabelle asked, trying to look bold, even though her voice told a different story.

  “No, but I know who it was. He will reveal himself shortly,” he replied, then sneered at Mrs. Crow.

  “You are all going to die here, but if you survive, which I doubt, I will be waiting for you outside with my dragons.” The man turned around to walk out of the hall.

  “Finish them.” He closed the door.

  The guards pulled out their swords from their sheaths and “Any last words? it’s an honor to kill the sister of a legend,” a guard in the front lines said, pointing his sword at Crow.

  “Stay behind me,” Crow said, as she pulled out the knife she had used to cut herself.

  “You can’t fight them all, they are too many,” Jackson panicked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not a Blackwater member for nothing.” She walked closer to the guards, studying them with her eyes, ready to make the first move.

  “Go to the far end of the hall!” she screamed at Anna and her friends, who quickly ran to the far end on the opposite side of the door.

  “Crow is our top priority; we can kill the kids after. No one touches the kids until she’s dead,” the commanding guard said, as he grinned and pulled out another sword.

  “Come, let me teach you a lesson,” Crow replied, after which the guards charged at her.

  The guard ran towards her and slashed at her, aiming for her head. She dodged it, and kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

  “Charge!” Another guard in the crowd screamed after seeing what happened and they all ran towards Crow at once.

  Effortlessly, she displayed the most amazing fighting skills and parkour the human eyes had ever seen. One by one, she dropped all those men with the knife in her hand and disarmed a few. She quickly picked up a sword and easily cut the rest of the guards open. She was quick, as she was skilled.

  “Where did she learn to fight like that?” Jackson said in awe as he watched her fight.

  “She’s definitely not human,” Jacob said, his eyes gaping wide open as he watched Crow kill those men.

  More and more men fell until she had vanquished all of them.

  “Wow that was easy,” she said, as she walked over to the man she had knocked out at the beginning of the battle and stabbed him through the heart while he was still unconscious.

  “You guys okay?” she said to Anna and her friends who were still in shock.

  “Oh, come on guys, it’s just a little fight,” Crow said, stomping on a corpse.

  “You call that little? That is not meant to be physically possible,” Joanna said, as she gazed at the bodies which laid lifelessly behind Crow.

  “Looks like my magic isn’t working, I have to kill the one who cast the spell,” Crow said, and cleaned the bloodstain off the sword in her hand using one of the corpses. CLICK..CLICK..CLANG…. The door to the main hall was unlocked, and standing right at the door was the brown- haired man.

  “For formalities, you can call me Devin,” he said, as he entered the hall and locked the door behind him.

  “Fascinating,” he added, scanning through the dead bodies, for he was truly amazed.

  “I have decided to kill you with my bare hands because using my dragons will be too easy,” he said as she drew his swords with a smile which slowly crept across his face.

  “You just made the wrong choice, go Crow!” Jacob screamed, pumping his fists in the air in an attempt to cheer Mrs. Crow.

  “Let me teach you as I have taught them!” she screamed, and threw the sword in her hand towards Devin.

  He tilted to the side, as the sword brushed past him, burying itself in the wooden door behind him.

  “This is going to be so much fun,” he said grinning, as he took off his black hoodie, rendering himself shirtless.

  “Not bad,” Crow commented, studying his physique.

  “Come!” He charged at Crow with full force, running at inhuman speed.

  She grabbed a sword from the ground and ran towards him, quickly closing the distance between them.

  With a loud bang, both parties collided.

  Devin furiously slashed at Mrs. Crow, who could barely dodge his attacks, each attack aimed at her vital spots.

  “Looks like she’s having a hard time keeping up,” Joanna commented, as she anxiously watched Crow engage in battle.

  “Shouldn’t we help her?” Anna asked her friends who seemed to be worried as well.

  “No, we’ll just get cut,” Jackson insisted, hoping for the best.

  “Come on Crow, I thought you’d put up more of a fight!” Devin screamed, as he disarmed her and knocked her off her feet.

  Mrs. Crow fell to the ground and was barely able to dodge the killing blow Devin had dealt. The sword grazed her arm, and spilled her blood on the floor causing her to scream.

  Oh no, this is bad. At this rate, we will all be killed, Annabelle thought to herself as she watched Crow hold her arm in pain.

  “Get up Crow, I’m not done yet!” Devin said to Crow who was still on the floor as he tried cutting her again. She rolled, evading his attacks and quickly got back on her feet.

  “Here, I want to enjoy this,” he said as he tossed her one of the swords he was holding.

  “Who are you and why are you doing this?” she asked, wincing due to the pain of her wound.

  “Oh, who I am is not important, but who sent me is!” he screamed, and slashed at Crow with incredible speed.

  He cut her multiple times, and kicked her to the ground again, nearly knocking her out.

  “Get up!” he yelled, as Crow struggled to get back on her feet, ignoring the cuts on her body.

  “Leave her alone!” Anna screamed at Devin who was about to end Crow permanently.

  “Oh, and what do you want to do little girl,” he said, holding his sword midair as he gazed at Annabelle.

  “Anna don’t he’s………” Jackson tried to stop her, but she pushed his hand away, and boldly walked towards Devin.

  “I said stop, unless you want me to kill you,” she said, eyeing Devin like he was something she really wanted to kill. Never had she looked so bloodthirsty.

  “Oh really?” Devin said, as he lowered his sword and turned his focus towards Annabelle.

  “Let’s see what you got!” He screamed, and closed the distance between himself and Anna, grabbing her by the neck before she could react.

  “Anna!” her friends screamed in concern, as they ran towards her, not thinking of the consequences.

  “Oh you too?” Devin said, as he noticed Anna’s friends approaching and wondered how stupid they were.

  He let go of Annabelle, who gagged and coughed as she tried catching her breath.

  “Well, this was too easy,” Devin said, as he used the butt of the sword to hit Joanna, Jacob and Jackson in the gut.

  “Why are you such a monster?!” Annabelle screamed, as she crawled towards her friends who were in pain.

  “Look at you all, four defeated friends and an unskilled sorceress, or should I say magician,” Devin said, and laughed.

  Unable to control her rage, “You monster!” Anna screamed, as she charged at him, trying to slap him.

  He caught her arm and punched her in the face, knocking her unconscious.

  “You animal,” Jackson squinted, putting his hands on his belly which sent stings of pain all over his torso.

  “Looks like I am going to kill the kids first. Master, your work is done,” Devin said as he raised his blade to kill Annabelle.