After replacing the burnt out light bulb and putting an empty trash bag in a can, I got to work.

I don't want to know what was in all of the jars I threw out. I saw all kinds of things; frogs, fingernails, toes, tails, assorted types of eyeballs, etc.

I lit up some incense to get rid of the smell of rot and decay. It seemed to work a little.

The books were what really disturbed me. 'Advanced Witchcraft', 'Communicating with Driven', and 'The Apocalypse: Stopping the Causes Volumes 1 through 76' were just a few of the titles rotting away on the bookshelves that lined the she'd walls. What the hell was this shit?

One of the books really grabbed my attention, though. It was entitled 'The Catalyst of Mo'kurei.'

I reached up and touched it, but then the bookcase started moving, revealing a staircase going down below the shed.

Again with the clichés. Let's get a little more predictable, shall we?

So, being the stupid fuck I am, I felt that the *overdone* story must go on. I walked down the stairs. Everything was dark. Weren't there little torches that would light up as I walked past them?

Suddenly, columns shot up from the floor and sat along the walls. They weren't normal columns, though. They were made of water. Oddly, they just stayed in place, not moving up or down, just... standing still. Wasn't water supposed to just flow when there was nothing holding it in place?

The columns then began to emanate a bluish light that filled the stone corridor and would cast ghostly shadows on the walls.

"That was creative," I muttered to myself and continued walking. Ever get that paranoid feeling like someone's watching you? Multiply that felling by a million and that's about how I felt as I walked through the hidden halls beneath my Grandma's farm.

The walls were gray/brown marble, unlike the bumpy rocks on the floor. They were clean, which was totally unlike the usual underground hallway. Usually there were spider webs everywhere and there was dust in the cold air, but the air was fresh, though could, and I had not seen a single spider web as I made my way further and further away from the shed that had shown me this hall.

I came to a section of wall that was different from the fine polished marble that the rest of the walls were constructed from. It looked as though someone had taken hundreds of thick ropes, like those that you found on large boats back in the time of pirates. They were tied and looped around each other, covering the entire portion of wall, but they were petrified, made of pure stone.

I gently brushed the tips of my fingers along a certain rope, wondering if this wall would open with my tough like the last one had. I barely felt the wall due to all of the calluses on my fingertips from playing my guitars so much. The ridges in the ropes were hard and rough form what I could tell. I tried pushing against the wall, the started pushing harder and harder until I had my entire body weight, which in the end wasn't that much, pressing against the wall as hard as I could.

'That won't work,' a small voice whispered.

'Use your blood!' shouted another voice.

'Yes, your blood! Your blood!'

'The blood of the Catalyst...'

'The blood of the Catalyst destroys all.'

'Use your blood!'

I had determined that three different voices were whispering these thoughts inside my mind. They continued repeating them over and over, the same words and phrases repeated in different orders, but the same message was given.

"I have nothing to cut myself with, you morons!" I shouted, not knowing who I was yelling at or if they would be severely offended by my insult, but I didn't care. Fuck them; they had no right to be inside my mind.

"Look down, stupid," A high-pitched voice that I recognized as one of the voices that had been in my head (That makes me sound insane.) said.

I looked down and there next to my feet sat a dagger, along with three... faerie... thingies.

"We're sprites, you idiot!" the yellow one shouted angrily, the only female of the three.

"These Catalyst," the blue one sighed with melancholy sarcasm.

The red one added in with an annoying chuckle, "All beauty and no brains."

The yellow one, the female, had long, golden blonde hair and a short yellow dress with matching shoes that curled up at the toe. She flew up at me with a smile on her small, but pretty face. Her amber eyes sparkled as she fluttered her translucent gold wings.

The red one wore a loin cloth and a tunic, both a washed out shade of red, and had crimson hair that was pulled back into a loose pony tail at the nape of his neck that trailed down to the small of his back. He was muscular, much bigger than the other two, and had a mischievous grin on his thin lips.

The blue one was small and shy. He had long hair, though not long like the other sprites' hair. It went down to his ears, then flipped out away from his head. He wore a cerulean tunic and sky blue leggings. he was much more lithe and graceful than the other two, especially the buff red one, and had silver tattoos on his arms.

"Who are you?" I murmured softly as the yellow one sat on the top of my head.

"You don't recognize us, 'Bastian?" the red one asked in a teasing voice with mock hurt wrapping around his words.

"No," I replied, "Should I?"

The red one paused and shook his head, "Um, no, not really."

"Definitely not," said the yellow one.

"We knew you wouldn't," the blue one added in a soft voice, then said, "I'm Mink."

"And I," said the red one, "am Rikitikitavi, but everyone just calls me Riki."

"I am Tinkerbell," said the yellow one, "And no, I'm not that fucking Disney slut!" she shouted from her seat in my hair.

My eyes grew wide as I made the connection of a life time. I'm a little slow, "Whoa, whoa, wait! You guys are the dogs?!"

"Actually, the dogs are us," said Mink.

"The real dogs that first hosted those bodies died a long time ago. Clairith allowed us to take up residence in their bodies so we wouldn't have to stay down here all of the time," Tink giggled.

"This is ludicrous," I sighed, "The dogs are little faeries."

"Sprites," they all said in unison.

"Faeries have butterfly wings," said Tink.

"Pixies have dragonfly wings," said Mink.

"And sprites have wings that are a cross between butterflies and dragonflies," said Riki.

I looked at them skeptically, "I take it you guys say that a lot." I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Stupid little faeries."

"Sprites!"

I picked up the knife they had brought for me and examined it. The blade was sharp, like it had never been used before. it was extremely thin and shined like a diamond. The handle was shaped like an old oriental dragon, each scale perfectly carved into the black lacquered wooden handle. For the eyes were two small, sparkling rubies with a small teardrop-shaped sapphire below one of the rubies.

The sprites watched me closely. I frowned under their penetrating gazes. I took the knife and used it to cut the skin of palm, not wanting to hurt my fingers because I knew thaw would leave me incapable of playing guitar. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.

I dropped the knife and squeezed my hand, forcing more of my blood from the wound. I smeared the blood onto the rope wall and gasped. A large crack started where my blood had been smeared and followed the droplets that dripped down towards the floor. I watched as the entire portion of wall crumbled in front of me and stepped back away from it. I held my hand to my chest, appalled that something coming from me could cause such destruction for no meaning. I was all for pain and death and killing people because I hated the world, but this one... not me doing it. it was something that was part of me that I couldn't control.

There was another corridor that had been previously hidden behind the wall. I stepped forward, the rubble crunching beneath my boots, and headed into the darkness. I had no idea what was going on and I felt like I was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone or something stupid like that. The fact that the sprites were glowing and circling around my head was not helping.

"Could you please stop," I grated out. They apologized in unison and the red one took the lead, showing my path that was slanting down, while the other two sat on my shoulders, one on each side.

Some of the columns had diffused and were flowing down with us, lining the walls like a moat to a castle. It gave off the same blue glow, but was fading.

"Hey, guys," I said, "You kept calling me Catalyst back there. Why were you doing that?"

"Because you are the Catalyst, Catalyst," Riki replied.

I frowned, "The Catalyst for what?"

The End of the World," the three sprites said in unison.

What the fuck is this; 'Clichés R Us', plus stupid little sprites that talk in unison? This is the stupidest fantasy story ever. Why am I writing this shit?

The angle of the floor was becoming sharper and the dimming streams of water were growing wider, causing the stone floors to get slick. Eventually, the inevitable happened. I slipped. I slid. I screamed like a little girl, only with less dignity.

The slant got even sharper as I slid and the corridor started curving around like a water slide, only not as fun and it made me want to vomit. The sprites were flying after me, yelling things I didn't understand. My jeans were saturated with water and clung to my legs. I like these jeans, dammit!!

The stone floor suddenly curved up and dropped off, causing me to fly up into the air then slam into a wall after soaring through the air for a moment or two.

"Ow," muttered as I hit the floor, smacking the back of my head against the now marble floor, just like the walls of the upper area.

"Catalyst," a small red glow shouted, "Are you alright?"

"No," I muttered in reply, "My head hurt and I feel like I've just been hit by a brick wall."

"Um, you kind of were," Mink said softly.

I sat up slowly and nodded, "Thanks for reminding me. Uh, where are we?"

I had looked around the small area, which was hardly visible. There was a pool of water below the part where the slanting floor curved up. It barely gave off any light, but it was enough for me to see and lot of large arcs (or door less doorways).

"Great," I muttered, looking at the pool, "How are we going to get out of here?"

The three sprites shrugged in unison, so I glared at them. Glaring solves everything. Just like violence. Not.

"Let's try the right one," I sighing, hoping the right had a double meaning in this case, and stood up to walk over to the doorway farthest to the right. I had a lot of trouble standing. My back hurt, my legs hurt, my head was in agony, and the rest of my body ached as well. My head hurt the most.

Riki flew ahead of me, lighting the way with his red glow. Then all of the sprites flew over to a spot on the ground and lifted up something. I took it from them and stared. It was a torch.

Pressing his hands together in a prayer-like manner, Riki caused an orange glow to grow in his hands, then he opened his hands and the torch lit up.

"Take it, Catalyst," he said, "It will guide you through the darkness."

"Right..." I muttered and walked into the tunnel. The flame flickered and danced, casting shadows on the walls and giving it an enigmatic atmosphere. There was writing on the walls of the tunnel in some odd language I didn't know. It looked like Chinese or Ancient Egyptian, but I knew Chinese and had studied Egyptian history for a World History project and this wasn't either.

I walked into a room of some sort. There was a single bookcase filled with books, a table with a box and a candle on it, a full-length mirror, and a cabinet a few feet away form the mirror.

In the center of the room was a podium of some sort sitting on top of a round platform. Around the platform was a pattern of different colored stones that looked Celtic.

"What is this place?" I breathed in a barely audible, awed voice.

The torch gave off very little light, but there was enough to look up and see that this room had no ceiling.

"This is the Chamber of Daiven," Mink said from my shoulder, "Here anyone can attempt to speak to Daiven. He loves to converse, but is somewhat fickle in his choices of whom to speak to because so many try to do it. If you speak with him constantly, he grants you immense power. He usually only speaks to Elfians, Gifted Ones, or his children, the Elfiks. If you are able to speak to him, you are highly favored. It is a great honor."

"Who are the Elfians?" I asked as I curiously walked over to the bookshelf and browsed through the titles. They were all about Daiven.

"The Elfians do not exist in the Realm of Iehova," said Tink as continued to look around the chamber in awe.

"Only in the Realm of Daiven," said Riki, "The Elfians are forbidden from entering the Realm of Iehova because they refuse to abide by Iehova's laws."

"Who is Iehova?" I asked.

Tink looked at me, "Your people call him 'God'."

I was silent. All of this was making my head hurt even more. Especially because I was a die-hard atheist. Maybe it was just the wall's fault my head hurt and the information over-load was my imagination. Stupid wall.

I then asked, "How many realms are there?"

Sighing, Riki answered, "No one knows."

"Iehova and Daiven are the most well-known because they are the most powerful deities in the universe and therefore have the largest realms," Tink added.

I turned and took a hesitant step towards the mirror.

"What realm are you guys from?" I took another slow step.

"We are the Children of Valif," said Riki. I took another step, "We are borne of the elements. Such is true for all sprites."

I took another step, "What about faeries and pixies? Where are they from?"

"They are also Children of Valif. Faeries are borne of the seasons," Tink explained.

"And pixies are borne of Life," added Riki, his voice thick with distaste. It was extremely obvious he didn't like pixies.

I finally stood in front of the mirror and stared at my reflection. I hated my reflection. Slowly, I reached up and used my finger to poke my reflection in the eye out of spite.

The mirror rippled like a single drop of rain in a spring and I quickly pulled my hand away as though it had been burned. The ripples filled the mirror, distorting my reflection and the reflection of everything around me. It slowly cleared, revealing something entirely different.

I stared at what had replaced my reflection. It was a man, a tall, muscular man with regal features and a sharp chin. His skin was smooth and his hair was a dark, dark green that looked almost black. His eyes, with irises the color of wine, stared back at me. In that moment, I felt I acted like a normal human being for the first time I can remember.

I dropped the torch and ran away screaming.

To Be Continued..

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