Eian awoke to pain, instense burning hunger pangs ravaged him, with his mouth dry he went rolling off his bed coughing.

'Fuck.' Eian's eyes felt sunken into his skull.

Groaning he rolled unto his side and pushed himself to sit.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he took a deep breathe, releasing a minute long yawn.

He stretched his legs outwards and stiffened his back, they felt tender, as though he'd slept for days on end.

'Something's off.' Eian frowned, scanning his bedroom.

The musky smell of a guy's room emanated the area along with stale sweat, his ears picked up loud noises outside his house, but neither of those were what was off.

He checked himself over, he wore a short sports pants as well as a sleeveless clear-white undershirt, he recalled this was what he wore before going to bed.

His saliva felt awfully dry and he licked his lips, he should probably get something to drink, as well as to eat.

His cramped little room could almost be labeled a large closet, his bed, a tiny night-stand with his phone and wallet as well as a rack with three sets of clothes.

Sighing he realized the tiny fan on his nightstand was off, he would need a shower soon.

Understanding blossomed, the oddity came to him, Eian looked over his tattoo's, they were there, everything was there.

Body however, was glowing weirdly, Mind and Spirit were not yet glowing which was weird.

The oddity he quickly identified as the familiar adrenaline rush of an upgrade from before.

'So. Here we are again.' Eian smiled half-heartedly, it wouldn't make sense to get his hopes up just yet.

Getting up, Eian made his was to his door, which was only a step from where he was.

Turning the knob, he winced ad the grating of the door, he could feel the resistance of the door as he pulled it open.

"Ahy." Eian squeaked embarrassingly.

Closing his eyes as a massive unexpected freezing occurring atop his head.

The cold melted and poured unto his skull, easing slowly into a pleasant feeling.

After the effect he quickly looked at his markings.

'Thsgra, Ul said right? Ah so that's it.' Eian snorted.

The Mind tattoo was glowing now.

'Oh shit. Spirit's next.' Eian winced, and gulped, quickly remembering he was thirsty.

His feet hurried across, entering the room which housed both kitchen and living room, both tiny.

An assortment of fashion magazine cut-outs decorated the room, the oldest ones depicted young boys wearing brand clothing, the most recent featured young men in decent designs, many also depicted model-women from ages twenty to forty.

He stopped cold, not far away was the source.

"Eian?" Elisa stared at him with disheveled hair and eyes filled with stress.

"Ma?" Eian blinked at her dumbly.

He eyed her disbelieving, at Five feet and two inches, she wasn't tall.

He knew from experience she was likely very tired if she didn't take time to fix her light brown hair, its color and length which dropped passed her shoulders was so completely unlike his own black.

She wore a casual T-shit and sports pants which she often used to sleep.

"Sweet-heart!" Elisa rushed over and hugged him.

"Hi?" Eian couldn't stop the stupid grin he had on.

"HI?! You say hi? Really that is all you have to say?" Elisa disengaged and frowned at him.

It was really great to see her well, despite knwoing she would be, it is one thing to know and another to see.

He opened his mouth unsure of what to say, it felt like an eternity since he last saw her.

At the same time, he felt as if everything were just a dream, so it also felt like not too long ago.

Weird that.

"I don't know what to say." Eian smiled awkwardly, but returned to hug.

"I missed you? Or I'm glad to see you, maybe? I'm certainly am." Elisa sounded on edge of tears by the end.

"Of course I missed you!" Eian patted her back, she must have been on edge from the start if she was so close to tears already.

That was probably the wrong thing to say, since she started crying.

"Shhh. Shhhhh...We're okay. Everything is going to be oh-kay." Eian rocked her a bit side-ways.

"I was so scared...*hic* I thought I *hic* had left you alone." Elisa kept crying on his shoulder.

"We are Oh-kay. Okay?" Eian kept patting and rocking her, he ignored the throbbing pangs of hunger.

She slowly calmed down, Eian patted her one last time before letting go.

"I'm sorry. I'm such a mess." Elisa laughed, she dried off the last of her tears.

"Don't worry. I'm pretty confused here too." Eian smiled at her.

That was when his stomach rumbled, which set them both off into a laughing fit.

"I'll make you something sweat-heart." Elisa wore a bemused grin.

"Now that. IS worth dying for." Eian laughed.

"You! Don't say that. Not even playing, I already thought I lost you once, I can't go through that again." Elisa chided him.

"..sorry..." Eian looked at the floor, a bit guilty.

"Let's get you something to eat. Grab the butter from the fridge." Elisa went straight to the stove.

Walking over to it, Eian opened the fridge and frowned.

"Ma. Some of this stuff looks a bit bad. Butter's half melted. I...think the powers low or something." Eian looked the the fridge light, which was unusually low.

"Huh. Let me see. Oh my. I have to separate everything. Go bathe meanwhile." Elisa gently shooed him away with a wrinkled nose.

"Yes ma." Eian probably smelled a bit, the fan had not been on when he woke.

Eian moved by the Television, turning it on quickly, it was static and he lowered the volume to zero.

He flipped through the channels realizing nothing was on he left it on.

He grabbed a change of clothes from his side of the closet and started heading over to the bathroom.

His lungs froze.

Eian fell to the floor, gasping for air, wordlessly unable to scream he clentched his teeth and endured.

His bones cracked, throbbed and disolved to nothing, he closed his eyes riding though soul-crushing agony.

Sweat beaded a top his fore and trickled down his back, steel filled his lungs, futilely trying to draw in air.

The grind was by far the worst, as though a file was eating away at them, followed by a something course filling the very marrow.

He remembered, yet nothing could compare, not even Ul's training could save him here.

Finally his exhausted body collapsed, the pain became a dull throb and he drew a wonderful deep breathe of air.

He drank up the oxygen like dying man, heaving he realized his mother was fussing over him.

"Sweat-heart!?" Elisa was on the verge of crying, again.

"I'm good." Eian sighed, relieved and trying very hard to not recall any of it.

"You are not good! We have to take you to the hospital! I tried calling, but the line was busy!" Elisa fussed.

Eian frowned, his mother should know about this.

"Ma? It's normal. You had the dream right?" Eian hadn't asked, because he assumed everyone had.

"Dream? That doesn't matter! We need to get you to the hospital." Elisa urged him to get up.

Sighing Eian shook his head at her prolonged fuss.

"Ma!" Eian raised his voice a bit to get her attention.

"What?!" Elisa quieted, he only raised his voice at her when it was important.

"I know what is happening. I'm not sick or anything. It's normal. Tell me please, did you have the Dream?" Eian put extra emphasis on the word dream.

"Dream? You mean THAT dream? Last night's one? The monsters?" Elisa tilted her head a bit.

"Yes! That one." Eian felt giddy, she had experienced it.

"What about it?" Elisa asked.

".....Tell me what you know about it please. The important parts. This is really important." Eian asked.

His stomach rumbled again.

"On second thought. Mom please make me something to eat. I'll take a bathe and we can talk." Eian clarified.

"Sweat-heart are you sure?" Elisa looked unsure.

"Yes. I'm fine." Eian clarified.

She didn't look happy, but she went to cook something for both of them.

Eian went in, the ice cold water made him jump a bit, but it was nice to soak.

Soap, sweat soap was wonderful, after so long, he had forgotten what it felt like to be clean, places he had forgotten, and damn his crotch felt wonderful, in a totally non-sexual way of course.

If he was not so damn hungry he would have stayed an entire hour just soaking, but hungry he was.

He came out of the shower feeling refreshed.

His mother was waiting for him on the table with a plate of waffles.

"I'm not sure about the meat." Elisa explained.

"It's fine." He was already stuffing his face.

He chugged down the glass of water, grabbing more before finishing his meal.

"Ah..." Eian leaned back, stated.

"Baby...You were saying?" Elisa looked apprehensive.

"Right. Tell me everything please. It looks like I know more than you, but I have to cross check with you." Eian clarified.

As they spoke Eian grew a bit concerned.

It seemed the group Elisa awoke with consisted of three women and one man, all of them were about the same age.

The middle-aged guy, whatever the hell his name was, decided he would protect them, at first Elisa said he was nice over all, he killed the monsters with a bit of difficulty, but he protected the women well enough.

Soon it became appearent he was gaining powers, it scared them, but he didn't really speak about it much.

"Wait. So you never got a tattoo?" Eian asked to clarify.

"Yes. Of course we did. Micheal made us kill things, he just asked us to put it all into Mind, he said that was the fastest way to get home." Elisa frowned.

'He likely thought if one of them got the Teleportation power that would help them get out.' Eian face-palmed.

"Continue please ma." Eian asked.

"Okay..." Elisa looked confused.

AS it turned out, macho man whatever his name was, began growing more demanding as time went on.

He never beat them, nor tried to coax them into sex or anything, but he declared himself the undisputed leader since he was killing everything.

That changed when one of the other two women chose Body instead, macho-man slapped her and almost continued to beat her, instead he yelled at her and refused to give her food.

After that the three women, grew scared of his mood-swings and followed his orders.

"What was his name again?" Eian asked, eyes darkening.

"Micheal. Are you paying attention?" Elisa gave him the stink-eye.

"Yeah. I just didn't really care about him till now. What was his last name?" Eian lifted his hands up in surrender.

"I don't remember." Elisa said, looking at the table a bit haunted.

"Please, continue." Eian asked nicely.

'If I ever get my hands on himm....urgh!' Eian grit his teeth, clenching his fists, imagining strangling him.

As it turned out sleazebag Micheal got himself killed, along with another unfortunate woman, whose name Eian didn't bother learning.

Elisa and woman number three were thus alone surrounded by monsters and practically powerless.

They didn't last too long, dehydration and hunger forced them out of hiding and they died to monsters soon-after.

"It's okay." Eian grabbed her hands.

"I'm not done." Elisa smiled at him.

After they died they all ended up together in a reception area, the women only though.

A cloaked man, greeted them nicely, he berated Micheal's actions whom was strangely absent, but lamented the results.

He called himself a collector.

"He didn't hurt you? Did he?" Eian asked quickly, a bit shocked.

"Micheal? No. he wasn't there I just told you." Elisa frowned.

"I meant the collector-guy." Eian clarified.

"No. He was really nice. Ay let me finish." Elisa said.

The collector finished by warning them of the upcoming changes to the world and what they had to prepare for.

Then he told each of them good-bye and everything went white, then Elisa woke up.

Eian processed the whole-thing.

"We need to make you chose an element." Eian frowned.

"What?" Elisa asked.

Eian gave her a break-down on magic to the best of his ability.

"First though we need a plan. We need to stock up more food." Eian's mind went straight to survival mode.

They began to discuss plans.

Then Eian heard a ringing.

"Be right back." Eian walked to his room.

He picked up his phone and noticed he had a few texts, a missed call from a familiar old friend's number.

Eian frowned, debating, sighing he called back.

"Hello?" Edward's familiar voice sounded.

"Ed?" Eian asked.

"E, my man. Listen you see the crazy shit on the T yet?" Ed's voice asked.

"All I have is static." Eian clarified.

"Check again my man, Gov's doing nothin' but talk. Listen, we gotta meet up. This whole crazy shit's gonna blow. Some o my peep's already talking like it's the end times. Oh crap, boss man's calling. Take care my brotha from another motha." Ed said.

"Yeah you too." Eian said, but he quickly realized Ed had already hung up.

Eian snorted at his old friends antics, he liked to speak like he was black sometimes, even though he was as Latin as him.

Ed was weird sometimes.

Eian checked his phone briefly, noticing a text from Russel also.

'Meet up soon. Got to figure this out. Tell Ed to stop bothering me.-R' Eian read the text in his mind.

Eian scratched his head, it looked like Edward had tried to call Russell too.

Eian sighed, it would be hard for those two to get along now, he missed high-school sometimes.

Eian sent a simple 'K' text back and went to the living room.

"Ma, let's check the news." Eian said.

Ed was right, the news was on, the same thing was on all channels.

"....advises everyone to remain calm. Congress is already in session and will announce how we will deal with this crisis. Until further notice..." Both reporters looked a little haggard, despite being in perfect uniform and make-up.

As he listened to the news Eian frowned, the State Governors had declared a curfew of ten o' clock at night for now.

Being caught outside would get you charged with a misdemeanor and put in a cell for the remainder of the night.

For minors the parents might face charges, and the minor would be escorted home.

'Huh. So they're declaring Curfew and asking people to remain calm.' Eian laughed a bit, it seemed a bit contradictory to him.

After listening a while more Eian, felt his belly rumble again.

'Ugh. Not again.' Eian scratched his head.

"Ma. We will definitely need more food." Eian grumbled.

"I'll make a list. It looks like the currents back to full power." Elisa got up and made her way to the fridge.

Eian went to bed and popped open his secret tart-snack stash, soon he felt he'd need to take a dump.

Cramming his mouth full, Eian debated something as he laid eye's on a completely different stash, which was hidden beneath his mattress.

'Might have to dig into college fund.' Eian sighed, he supposed that was the last thing that should matter right now, but it would hurt.