When I entered the spaceship, as I was calling it, I didn't even know I had left the base on the surface. We walked through a narrow hallway, into what looked like an empty room, and Austin was like,

  "Surprise! You've entered the rocket that will take you to the main ship."

  "Whoa," Harper said. "I thought we had to go down this hallway to get to the entrance to the rocket."

  "I second that," I said in wonder. The transition was so seamless from the base to the rocket. Even when I looked closer I couldn't see anywhere with any seams or anything. It all felt like one big room.

  "How do you make that transition smooth?" I asked. "I can't even see any seams or bolts or anything."

  "Of course you can't," Austin said, confusing me. "That's because the space between you and the hostile atmosphere of earth is a thick layer of Dark Matter combined with some sturdy elements. A team of Dark Matter Manipulators are on standby keeping us alive until I shut the hatch and we have the all clear."

  Huh, I thought. That was smart. It probably made it so you didn't have to mess with a bunch of fancy latches and stuff, but one thing still didn't make sense to me.

  "Don't you still need the fighters on the front lines?" I asked Austin.

  "The people that work here are stationed at this base to protect the people below," Autsin explained. "They just decide to give us a helping hand from time to time."

  I walked into the room and looked around. The first, most noticeable thing to me was that everything was firmly attached to a surface, and even then nothing was really out in general. The only thing lying around was some type of monitor, and even that was locked in some type of holder.

  "This is so cool, isn't it?" I bent over and whispered in Harper's ear.

  "Yeah," she whispered back into my ear. "Isn't it surreal that they have to lock down everything so it doesn't rip a hole in the ship on liftoff?"

  I nodded my head at her. It was cool.

  "Are you guys going to stop goggling so we can strap in and get off this planet already?" Austin said, getting impatient. We both nodded our heads and followed Austin through a hatch in the ceiling that we reached via a ladder.

  Once we climbed through I was blown away by what I saw. Monitors were everywhere, flashing lights and beeping constantly. Four chairs were bolted to the floor with straps that looked like they were made of steel bolted on the sides. The whole thing was made of mettle.

  "Sweet!" Harper said, climbing in a chair. She strapped herself in with no hesitation. I watched as Austin started to push a bunch of buttons that were on the bottom of her seat.

  "Just don't move," he said. By the time he was done Harper exhaled.

  "I can't move at all," she said, roving her eyes looking at me. "I feel like I'm in a coffin that was stuffed with bubble wrap and then the lid was closed."

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  "How do you know what that feels like?" I said and when I saw the look on her face I started to laugh. I wasn't laughing though once it was my turn.

  I sat down in my chair and Austin started to do his work, pushing buttons that were out of my view. Something started to squeeze my head into place until I couldn't move it at all. Then Austin strapped me in with a strap and started to tighten it with his buttons.

  Once the whole process was over I couldn't move a muscle. Austin straightened up.

  "Finally," he said, arching his back. "The Dark Lord will be pleased."

  It was only then that I realized that something was inherently wrong.

  "What do you mean 'The Dark Lord' ?" I asked, trying to strain against my bonds. Something wasn't right.

  Austin's lips curled into a sadistic smile.

  "The Dark Lord wants you," he said, beginning to laugh in a horrible way that made me start to shake. "He has been looking for you for a long time. He wants you alive too. Your blood is invaluable to him."

  BLOOD? I thought. DID HE WANT TO KILL ME?

  I looked over and saw Harper straining against her bonds next to me. Her eyes looked panicked.

  "What do you want?" she said looking straight into Austin's evil eyes.

  "What do I want with you?" Austin said as a curling dark mass started to appear out of his eyes. "I don't WANT anything with you really. You were just extra baggage. A necessity. I could kill you right now and be done with you."

  I started yelling, pushing against my bonds as hard as I could. Still, nothing budged so I was powerless as I watched that dark tendril curl out of Austin's eyes.

  His pupils became black, so black that it appeared that nothing was there. That tendril also became blacker, if that is a word. It all became so black that I couldn't even really see it. The only reason I knew that it was there was because of the contrast of the rest of the room highlighting the blackness.

  Even a couple of feet away from the blackness, I could feel the restless evil stirring.

  KILL. BLOOD. I could hear it whispering in my ear. I felt horrible things course through my body. Feelings of dread and hopelessness. I wanted to destroy everything to be rid of this evil feeling.

  "Never seen what Dark Matter can really do, have you boy?" the dark eyes turned towards me. At this point I was sure of something: Austin wasn't even human.

  I watched in horror as that little black tendril reached out and started to press against Harper's neck. She started to moan and cry out in terror.

  "Stop!" I screamed. Austin just looked at me with those dark eyes.

  "Why should I?" he said. "she is worthless to me now."

  The tendril slowly started to press in deeper. The screams grew louder and the look in Harper's eyes made me want to pass out.

  "I know something," I said. That got Austin's attention. The tendril stopped moving and retreated just a little bit. I saw blood dripping from a little hole in Harper's neck.

  "You know something?" Austin mused. "What could you possibly know?" At this point I was just trying to delay him, trying to keep him away from Harper.

  "Something about my heritage," I said, scrambling to make something up. "And I'm not gonna tell what if you kill Harper."

  I cringed as the man's eyes roved up and down my body, almost like he was looking into my soul. Suddenly, the tendril disappeared as if it had never been there before.

  "She will live for now," Austin said as the darkness started to retreat. With each moment I would see his old eyes as the madness left him and the evil began to retreat.

  "But once I bring you to the Dark Lord, he will get that information out of you before killing both you and your friend," as Austin said. I felt the evil grow and darkness flooded out of Austin's entire body. Everything went black for me as I passed out.