Within minutes, Will and his father finally arrived at their new home. The only true relief was not needed to be cramped in Jonathan's Pontiac. As Will got out of the car, he took a long stretch. I hope he wasn't joking about this being the last move. Will thought as he stretched his arms over his head. I don't know how many more of these car rides I can take. Finally finished, he felt his muscles loosen up ever so slightly.

By looking at the house, Will could tell it wasn't just a fixer upper as he originally thought. This one was a two-car garage house with a decent sized lawn. Whistling to himself at how much the price must have come out to, Will couldn't help but wonder how Jonathan was able to pay for it all. Taking his bag out of the car, he took one last look at the would-be mansion. Home sweet home, he thought sarcastically, knowing it was only a matter of time until he once again had to pack up his things.

As they went to the upstairs front door, Jonathan took a key from his pocket. “The first time unlocking the door to our new home,” he said as he had practically to all the other houses. “Why don't you do it this time, Will?”

Will shrugged at his father’s generosity. Oh boy, he thought. What an honor! Taking the key with a chuckle, he unlocked the door and opened it. Stepping inside, he took in the surroundings. The kitchen was directly in front of them attached to the dining room which the table had already taken up residence. To the right was a living space with a half wall separator blocking the doorway into a hallway. To the left after the small hall was another hallway leading to the downstairs living space. With three doors in the hallway, one was in the middle of the hall. Will had to guess that was the master’s bedroom, another at the very end of the hall which was clearly a restroom, and one to the right which would be Jonathan's office.

“The downstairs is completely yours, Will, though your room is already setup. If you want another room, we'll have help with the movers again tomorrow,” Jonathan said. To anyone else, this would seem like a very reasonable arrangement, but Will didn't care. Whichever room he took, he'd have to leave later anyway.

“I'm going to check out the room and also check out,” Will said with a nod to Jonathan. “I'll see you tomorrow.” Yawning, Will set down the keys on the ledge of the half wall.

“Make sure to sleep in,” Jonathan said with a concerned look. “It's been a long drive, and I know we could both use the comp time.” Will waved him good night while he took the hallway leading to his sanctuary.

Taking the staircase leading downstairs, Will saw arrows on the wall with his name on them. He was used to the easy leading style setup by the movers after the first three times they moved. At the end of the stairs, a couch was a few paces away with an arrow for him to follow, each one bringing him closer to his room. “I wish they would stop with the signs,” he thought to himself, “I'm pretty sure I know how to find my own room, it's the only one with stuff in it.” Will rolled his eyes as he took the hallway leading to his room.

Arriving at the door after following the ridiculous arrows, Will found a welcome home sign with balloons around the door. Not bothering to take them off, he opened the door, showing him the exact bedroom layout as he had the last place. A bed in the corner, a desk and chair with a laptop already plugged in, a television at the foot of the bed on its own entertainment center, and a closet which all of his clothes had already been unpacked and hung up. Even his shoes were in the same order in which he left them lined up on the floor in the closet.

With a sigh, Will took the only unused hanger and put his favorite leather jacket in the closet. Not caring about the rest of his clothes, he launched himself onto his bed. Finding the remote for the television under his pillow where he always left it, he turned on the news. If I'm going to live here, I should at least know some current events, he thought as the generic hot girl appeared on the screen.

Though the girl in Will's opinion was indeed picture perfect, it wasn't what grabbed his attention. As of now, the reporter was at the scene of a huge house fire. Looking at the street at the bottom of the screen, he remembered it from the ones he had been counting on his way to the new house. The house was only a few blocks away from him now. He went to the window and looked out; sure enough he could see the orange glow where the fire was located.

“At this time, we can only speculate how this fire was started.” Will heard the reporter say. “The fire department on scene has told us that a gas leak is out of the question due to the gas having been shut off just days ago.” Will couldn't take his eyes away from the blaze on the screen. What else could it have been if not a gas leak? He thought as he watched the fire department hook up the hose to the truck.

Pumping gallons after gallons of water onto the burning house, it seemed as though nothing could stop the fire. Will watched three minutes of them constantly trying to fend off the flames. At the time, the firemen seemed to be at a loss as they saw any effort they put into fighting the fire wasn't doing anything.

Just as the house collapsed due to the relentless blaze, Will saw them. It was the same five black cloaked men he had seen earlier that night. They were walking straight out of the wreckage with their blades drawn as if they had just used them in battle. Did they cause this? He thought as he clutched the remote as if it were a weapon. He thought if they had nothing to do with the fire, why would they be there?

Before Will was about to turn off the television, he sensed something was off. He watched the black cloak men came out of the fire though they never stopped walking. Each one of them, in perfect formation, was walking straight toward the camera crew. None of them made any sign or inclination that they could see the cloaks, they just continued reporting as if nothing was out of the ordinary. It was as if the five figures didn't even exist. Slowly making their way closer, each footstep pounding on the ground matched the rhythm of Will's heartbeat pounding in his chest. With each step, Will felt the same chill he did when he saw them at the stoplight.

As they grew closer, the chill increased and the flames seemed darker as if they were being strangled. Within moments, they looked as if they were about to walk straight through the television. Just as one of them put its hand out as if it was about to reach through the screen, Will slammed the power button and threw the remote to the far corner of the room.

Just like before, the goose bumps went away the moment he couldn't see the cloaks. Obviously it's time for bed, Will thought as he tried to shrug off the experience as just being exhausted from the long car ride. Will sat up and grabbed a drink out of his travel bag. Oddly enough, caffeine had always helped him sleep. Once trying to beat into his head that he was hallucinating, Will laid back down in bed.

Will waited for sleep to come, but for some reason, it was held off by the thought of the cloaks. If they were just hallucinations he got by his lack of good sleep lately, why would they show up at places further from him? Why was he not seeing them outside his door or at the foot of his bed? It almost felt as though they were searching for him. What could they possibly want with me? He thought to himself, I have only just gotten into town, what could they want with me?

His thoughts were running a million miles an hour, the only thing actually occupying them was the black cloaks. Will groaned into his pillow, he needed to relax. They had not shown up anywhere in which they could actually reach him. “They must not have been real,” he said, resigning himself to the thought so he could finally put himself to sleep.

Finally getting a chance to close his eyes, the last thing he thought was “welcome home,” with a sigh, and then he allowed the dark cloud of sleep to envelop him at last.

Running for what seemed like forever, he stopped to catch his breath. His heart was pounding as if like the beat of a drum. His pursuers were just a mile back; the closer they got, the faster the drum played. He could still see them in the open, their black cloaks billowing in the desert heat and a glint of steel from the sun hitting their unsheathed swords.

He figured he had a few minutes to gather his bearings before they got close, too close for comfort. He could only stay a few paces ahead of them. No matter how hard he pushed himself, he could never be rid of the nightmares at his heels. It seemed as though they were herding him somewhere, seeing as though they never truly caught up, but he knew they could if they truly wanted to. If he chose a different route, they would change their route as well in order to keep him going where they wanted. If he tried to thrown them off, they just split up to box him in. The only landmark he could see were snow capped mountains off in the distance. The more he walked, the closer they got. He didn't know what else was out there; the desert was completely alien to him besides, he didn't really want to find out what else could be in the wasteland. He already had the black cloaks to worry about.

Looking back at the cloaks, he jumped out of surprise and fell to his backside. In front of him was a man in a black business suit and overcoat; he had a neatly trimmed goatee and fierce green eyes which peered down at him.

All Will could do to avoid this man's gaze was to look down. He felt a burning sense of guilt as though he couldn't measure up to this man’s expectations. As the eyes burned a hole in his skull, he wished for nothing more than to die where he sat. “I'm not strong enough yet,” he said as his eyes stayed permanently glued to his feet. “How am I supposed to defeat them?”

he man just stared at the cowering boy on the ground, his face riddled with disgust. “First, you get off your ass,” he barked as if he were a drill instructor. “And then you get stronger!”

As he tried to get up, to escape this man’s gaze, a hand with an abnormally strong grip yanked him on his feet. Staring at this man, he didn't know what to make of him; his appearance was completely off from what he had seen so far. Before he could ask anything, the man roared at him, at first he couldn't hear him which was odd. Then the words came to him in a boom. “WAKE UP, WILLIAM!”