Believe (1) - The beginning....

"Seven stars Orion make..." Like a whisper it plays over in your mind, "Seven stars Orion make, first star history's veil will break." A chant it plays over and over, "Seven stars Orion make...."

Slowly your eyes flicker open and you find yourself in sickbay, lying on the reclining couch, Raven sits next to you, watching you as you look over to him.
"Rune, are you alright?" He asks gently, noticing that you have awoken, "You had a nasty turn there."

"Seven stars..." You whisper the first words to come into your mind with a groan, followed by "Oh my head..."

Raven's eyes narrow just slightly and he seems to be thinking about something, "Rune, do you remember what happened before you collapsed?" He asks softly

"I.... I saw angels, they looked so real..." You reply, the vision returning to your mind, "Three angels.... and blood."

Raven seems to flinch under your words, and then shakes his head, "So it begins." His words do not seem directed at you as he stands; now his attention returns to you, "I have to go now, the bell just went for the end of period four and I have to get to practice, I had to stay to make sure you were alright though. If you can not find the one you spoke of earlier please come and watch the practice and I will watch over you. I believe practice will be held in the Brower Hall. I've added my number to your mobile, so I'll just give you a call when we finish up, alright?"

"Alright." You reply and he nods, you notice a scrunched ball of paper in his hand as he lifts his schoolbag. He gives you a smile before he leaves the room, a gentle smile; as if to say that everything will be alright.

You lie still for a while before digging your mobile and English book out your schoolbag, which is sitting beside you; you sit up, taking a few moments to allow the blood to return to your head as you slip you phone into your pocket.

Slowly you open the book, leafing through to find the page with your angels drawn on it, but the page is gone. Torn out so neatly it seems almost as if it was never there at all. Over and over you see in your mind Raven holding the crumbled ball of paper and wonder why. Why did he take it? What was that vision? Why? What is happening?

"Rune?" A voice asks gently from the doorway, you had been so wrapped up in your own thoughts you had not heard the footsteps.

Sade looks at you with concern in his eyes, "I heard that you collapsed in English, I came to see if you were feeling any better."

You give a sigh, "Not really, my head is killing me.... and..." You pause, oh why not, "And I don't have any way of getting home, Raven was going to give me a lift, but now he's been forced onto the kickbox team..."

Sade gives a sigh and walks in, he sits next to you on the couch, "Sounds like you've had a rough day..."

"Sade...." You say softly, looking over to him, "I know this is really sudden and really short notice, but, would you mind if I came home with you? Raven said he would pick me up after training, but I don't want to hang around here...."

Sade looks quite thrown for a moment before a smile breaks out on his face, "Of course! I should have thought of that myself. That'd be great."

"Really?" You ask, surprised at his reaction

"Yeah, it'll be great fun!" He says happily, "My parents won't be home though, I hope you don't mind."

"No, that's ok." You say with a smile

"Awesomeness!" Sade says standing, "I'll go and get us signed out while you get yourself ready and I'll meet you in the carpark, ok?" He almost runs from the room, pulling a mobile from his pocket as he does so.

You arrive at the student carpark about ten minutes later and look around, you spot Sade a little way off he is wearing the leather jacket he was carrying this morning, he notices you at the same time and walks over.

"Ready?" He asks, "Good, let's go." He leads you over to the motorbike you saw this morning; it seems it was his...

Sade blushes, noticing your expression, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this.... I ride a bike... Have you ever ridden before?"

He gives a nod, "Fair enough then." Sade hands you a black and red helmet and puts a silver one on himself, you can't help but notice that it matches his eyes and hair, "Well just hold onto me, I don't mind how tight you hold on, I want you to feel safe."

You're wondering if he realises that you did just collapse less than an hour ago and maybe riding a motorbike isn't the safest option right now, but as Sade revs the bike it's obvious that the thought has not occurred to him, he indicates for you to hop on behind him. You comply and wrap your arms around his waist, holding tight to him. You can just catch the faintest flicker of a smile on his face before he guns the motor and the two of you fly out of the school.

The wind feels amazing as you hold tight to Crusade, trusting your life to a guy you only just met yesterday suddenly seems like the best idea you've ever had. The adrenaline pumping through your body sends all thoughts other than not falling off the bike fade out of your mind, angels, demons, were-wolves, vampires, what power do they hold compared to a bike doing a bit over the 110km/h (Author's note: approx 68Mph) speed limit?

Sade zips through the early afternoon traffic easily, skiting around a semi-trailer and straight through Rigel and out again, down a small road and onto an even smaller road from that, trees line both side of the narrow road and still Sade does not slow the bike, if anything he pushes the machine harder, the speedometer flaring past the 130km (81Mph) mark and still rising, you cling tighter to him, this road is old and in need of repair and it seems to be getting even narrower, the trees on each side closing in tighter, suddenly that 'best idea ever' may not have been such a great idea after all. You can't help but think of the irony it would be, Raven and James and Pent and Ren protecting you so hard from Delran only for you to die in a bike crash...

You cling tighter to Sade as you spot a bend in the road ahead, you slam your eyes shut and hold on for dear life as the bike's speedo flies past 150km (93Mph). Sade does not seem to be slowing and you're sure the turn must be nearing...

But it never comes.

You open your eyes as you feel the bike begin to slow, you're now heading down a small dirt lane or maybe it's a driveway, looking back you can see the bend in the road, you've gone straight as opposed to turning. Sade relaxes the speed now, pulling the bike back to 80km (50Mph) as you ride down the lane, it must be a lane as you can see driveways leading off it.

Once again Sade slows the bike, this time just before he makes a right turn into a driveway and down along the driveway, which is in serious need of repairs, parts are washed out and deep ruts like speedhumps are spread through it. You spot the house ahead of you now, it seems a normal enough two story place with a garage underneath and a set of stairs leading up to the front door. Sade slowly brings the bike to a halt, killing the engine.

He jumps down and lifts you down before pulling his helmet off.
"Hey there, you ok?" He asks with a smile.

"I'm ok..." You squeak before giving a small cough and returning your voice to normal, "I mean, yeah, I'm ok." You say blushing

Sade blushes and rubs the back of his head in an embarrassed way, "Sorry about that.... I'm not used to having passengers and I like to gun it a little...."

"A little?" You ask with a grin and he gives a small laugh.

"Sorry Rune, here, let's go in, I'll leave the bike out for now, I might need it later." He says leading you up the stairs to the front door.

One good thing came of his gunning the bike 'a little'; all traces of faintness have left you...

Sade unlocks the door and you follow him inside, the door opens into a hall, a living room is to your left, separated from the hall by a wooden banister, following the hall through you reach a kind of intersection with the hall breaking four ways, down one you can see bedrooms another leads to what seems to be the bathroom and the other to the living room and kitchen. Sade takes you down the hall towards the kitchen, a staircase leading down is to your right, it must lead down to the garage.

"Are you hungry?" Sade asks, looking to you, "It's about lunch time."

You give a nod, "Yeah I am." You reply, you pass a computer, it's sitting just inside the living room, it's on but strangely enough you notice the screensaver isn't going, as if someone had just left it but Sade has been at school all day... so who?

"Anything you'd like?" Sade's words break you out of your thoughts

"I'm not overly picky." You reply, it's a lie but oh well.

The kitchen is impeccably clean, Sade fixes you both toasted sandwiches and the two of you move into the dinning room to eat.

The two of you are eating in silence, sitting opposite each other, when a phone starts ringing, your phone, you're the only person you know who has that ringtone...

"Sorry." You say blushing digging your mobile out of your pocket.

"No worries." Sade says with a smile

You look at the name showing as you answer; 'James'. Your heart skips a beat.

"Hello?" You ask weakly

"Rune?" It's James, "Hey! How are you?"

"I'm ok..." You say weakly, "What about you, James are you alright?"

Opposite Sade seems to stiffen, he stands, "Excuse me." He whispers as he leaves the room, drawing out his own mobile.

"I'm alright, I'm so sorry about this Rune.... I never meant to worry you..." James sounds so sorry that your heart begins to melt, all the anger and frustration you held towards him begins to slowly slip away.

"It's alright, I'm just glad you're ok. What about Ren and Pent?" You ask

James gives a sigh, "Ren's here with me-"
"Hi Rune!" Ren calls happily, wrestling the phone off James, "How's it going?"

You can hear the sounds of James trying to get the phone back off Ren and Ren just laughs, "No James, you're driving you shouldn't talk and drive at the same time."

You can't help but grin, "It's good to hear both of you again. I was worried."
"Worried? Oh, I feel so special now!" Ren says with a laugh and you can imagine the looks James is giving him.

"Where are you guys?" You ask curiously

"We're coming to get you." He replies happily, "Raven gave James a call and told him what happened. I never thought anyone could get Raven into a fight so easil-"

Ren is cut off as James steals his phone back, he gives a sigh, "Ren, please...." He mutters before returning to his conversation with you. "As you can hear, Ren is with me."

"What about Pent?" You ask, "He's not with you." It's about 1:30 so there is little doubt in your mind that Pent is not with them.

"No, he's not. I'm.... we're not sure where he is actually." James replies softly, "But don't worry, he'll be fine."

You feel fear for Pent welling up inside you, but you brush it aside, Pent is smart he must be alright...

"Rune." James says gently, breaking into your thoughts, "Where are you? Ren and I are coming to get you now."

"Oh, umm. I'm not sure of the address, hang on a moment." You say looking around for Sade, "Sade?" You call.

"Yeah?" Comes his voice from the next room

"Rune." James says, "Don't worry about it, Ren can trace your phone, we'll find you."

"Oh, ok. Don't worry, it's alright." You call back to Sade.

"Ok then." Sade calls back.

"We'll be there soon." James says and you can tell he's smiling as he hangs up the phone.