Genre Gala:Contemporary Fantasy: The Rise of Myths

Liam

Liam, Keisha and Savannah strolled down the road on their way home. Liam and Keisha were far-off cousins, and Savannah was their friend.

Savannah tugged on her blonde ponytail. "It is so hot."

Liam laughed. "It's the middle of summer, Savannah, it’s supposed to be hot. We're almost there, anyway."

Keisha blew in Savannah's ear, who jumped and pushed Keisha away. "Ew!"

"Didn't you say it was hot?"

"Ha ha." Savannah strode ahead.

Liam was lost in his thoughts. He was thinking about their plans for the holidays. Swimming, ice cream and movies were the only things he could possibly think about doing.

But of course that wasn't possible.

Liam was jerked out of his thoughts when Savannah turned back and yelled, pointing at the roof of a nearby building.

Keisha and Liam stared at the thing sitting atop the chimney.

"A Phoenix." Liam whispered in awe.

"I think it's a chicken, personally," said Keisha.

"A Phoenix looks like that when it's going to die soon, Keish.," Savannah said.

"How can it be one, Savannah? Phoenixes are mythical!" Keisha protested.

"Let's go have a closer look." Liam's heart was racing suddenly.

He started towards the house followed by Keisha and Savannah. They crossed the road and could now see the chicken/phoenix right above.

"Wow," Keisha was saying when the bird suddenly squawked in alarm and beat its wings, lifting off and unsteadily flying away.

"Why-"Savannah was cut off.

"It must have been scared by something." Liam whispered softly. "Look around here-"

They didn't have to.

Savannah

Savannah had known that the bird was trouble.

The moment they turned, they saw a man, wearing a black body suit, racing across the street. They could only see striking eyes, one green, one blue.

The guy pointed something at the kids, and they all gasped as one.

A gun.

The man held a finger to his lips and then disappeared after the bird.

"Well?" said Savannah, thinking hard and turning around to face her friends.

"Well?" Keisha nearly shrieked. "We just almost died and you're saying well?"

"Look, that guy is surely after that bird for a reason. Shouldn't we help it?" Savannah asked.

Liam hesitated for a second before getting up and saying, "Yeah. You're right, you know? We gotta do something."

Keisha stared at him for a second before putting her hands on her hips. "Well, don't stare at me. What are we waiting for?"

Savannah smiled. The three of them chased after the phoenix they could see flying further and further.

Savannah suddenly froze in her tracks, horrified, causing Liam and Keisha to bump into her. Liam was able to respond angrily when she pointed at the Phoenix. It was struggling to stay in the air; it had been lassoed. In a moment, it had been pulled down, and the friends heard a pained squawk as the was probably stuffed into a cage.

"The man must have caught it!" Savannah shrieked.

"That's more the reason to keep going, isn't it?" Liam stepped forward and put his arm on Savannah's shoulder, confident.

The chase continued and they followed the man who, indeed had trapped the phoenix in a sack. At one point, he turned around, but Liam shoved the others behind a building.

They trailed the man safely to a grey industrial building, where he disappeared with the bird. The building was surrounded by broken parts of cars and other tools.

"We need a plan of action, guys," Liam turned to the girls.

"We have to improvise, Liam. We don't have any intel about the place," Keisha said.

Savannah started towards the building and said, "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Liam, Savannah and Keisha proceeded towards the door and found it was unlocked. Savannah was about to push it open when Keisha caught her hand.

"The door creaked when the guy pushed it open," Keisha whispered. "What can we do?"

Savannah had a sudden idea. She bent down and crept towards a rusty axle, and, grimacing, stuck her finger into one of the joints. A moment later, she stood up with oil and grease on her finger. She stepped up to the door and rubbed her disgusting finger in the hinges, and then she pushed the door open soundlessly.

"Genius!" Liam said and led the way in. The first floor seemed to be empty, so they slowly headed upstairs. Savannah put a finger to her lips, gesturing for the others to be silent as they reached the first-floor landing. It was the only other floor. There were two visible doors on the landing. Keisha, who'd been at the back, quietly placed her hand on Liam's shoulder, and he let her go ahead. She stepped past Savannah and slowly put her ear to the first door, then motioned to the others. Savannah hurried to the second door, and Liam stood lookout.

Silence could almost be felt as they listened to check if there was anyone behind any of the doors. They huddled at the top of the staircase.

"I heard voices. People were talking in the third room. What 'bout you, Keisha?" Savannah asked.

"Well, I didn't hear a thing," she said, "Although-"

She froze, terrorized. There were voices coming upstairs.

The three raced for the 'empty room' and slammed the door behind them as much as they could without actually slamming it.

A loud squawk made them turn. There were several cages in the room, containing a weird assortment of species. There was the phoenix they had seen earlier, along with other mythical species of birds.

"How'd they get here?" Keisha whispered.

"Those smugglers brought them, idiot." Liam joked.

"I mean, how'd they get to this time?"

Liam was about to say something when the door opened.

"You'd like to know that, wouldn't you, girl?"

The three wheeled around. The man who'd pointed the gun at them was standing in the doorway with his hood off. His heterochronic eyes glinted and he smirked. He raised the same gun, then yelled, "Boys! Come ‘ere."

Two other men stepped out of the second room and one more came up from the stairs having followed his boss up.

The man leered over the kids. "Enjoy your cages."

Keisha

The pain wasn't letting Keisha think.

The men had stuffed the three kids into a big, smelly metal cage, but it was nowhere enough for them.

They were all squeezed against the walls of the cage and each other, and one of the bars was biting into Keisha's hand and she couldn't adjust it.

"How do we get out of here, guys? " Savannah said hoarsely after the men had left, cackling.

"I might have a plan, but I need to relax my hand first," said Keisha.

The three friends moved around as much as they could until Keisha let out a sigh of relief.

"Now what's the plan?" Savannah asked.

"I have a hairpin in my braid, guys. My hands are close to the door and I'm pretty sure I can pick the lock, but I couldn't reach it seeing how we're stuck. Liam, if you can somehow pull it out, that would be great." Keisha suggested.

She felt her cousin's hand struggle near her back a bit, and then there was a tug on her braid. He squeezed her hand as he handed it to her.

"Come on, Keish." Savannah said.

Keisha bit her lip as she put her hand through the bars and inserted the pin into the lock. She rattled it and twisted it, there was a tiny click and the door swung open.

Keisha stepped out and grinned at the two as she shook her limbs.

Liam and Savannah did the same.

"Now what?" Savannah asked.

"I suggest we should go down and try to sneak past the smugglers," said Liam.

"Yeah, Liam, but what about the creatures? We can't leave them in this world, let alone with these people." Keisha argued. "We have to help."

"How about I stay here and try to release them, and you two can get out." Savannah suggested.

"Girl, you are going nuts if you think we're going to let you sacrifice yourself or something. It's everyone or no one." Liam said.

Much to his annoyance, she stifled a laugh. "Of course not, dude. Once you're out, you can distract them so that I can escape with these." Savannah waved at the cages.

Keisha and Liam slowly tiptoed down the stairs leaving Savannah with Keisha's hairpin.

They had reached the midway landing when they saw the scene downstairs.

The boss was standing with his back to them, still holding his gun. The three others were standing similarly, but they seemed to be cowering. The boss was yelling something along the lines of 'fire you,' which made Liam smirk.

They crept down until they were almost right behind the men, and Keisha motioned to Liam. He nodded.

Liam leapt onto the boss, flattening him and sending his gun skittering across the room. He hit him on the head with a nearby wrench and he fainted.

The others turned around, shocked, and the first one to recover lunged at Keisha, but she twisted aside and tripped him, then ran across the room to where Liam was standing. The door, unfortunately, was quite far from their position.

The second man bounded up the stairs, and Keisha groaned inaudibly, hoping that Savannah had locked the door of the room they'd been in.

The first and third man charged Liam and Keisha with renewed force. Liam body-slammed the man coming at him, but the other man dodged Keisha's punch and caught her in an iron grip. Two of hiring colleagues were now unconscious, but he caught Liam and twisted his arm behind his back.

The second man suddenly came downstairs, holding Savannah by the shoulder tightly.

"Guys! I'm sorry. He broke through the door and pushed all the animals back into their cages."

"It's okay," said Keisha. "We'll do something."

And what they were going to do became clear a second later to the poor men when all three of the kids bit their captors hard.

Savannah rolled aside, and Keisha head-butted the man holding her for good measure and leapt aside. Liam followed her. They were turning towards Savannah when they heard a gasp.

The boss, now conscious, was holding Savannah in a vice-like grip, his arm around her neck. She was slowly turning red.

In shock, Keisha lunged for the gun she spotted lying nearby. She pointed it at the man, her arms trembling. "Let... Let her go."

The man jeered, pretending to be scared for a second, then lapsed back to his normal face. The other members were also unmoving, cackling.

"It takes guts to pull that trigger, little girl." The boss drawled. "Keep it down."

"Let her go first!" Keisha cried.

The boss slightly loosened his grip on Savannah, allowing her to breath, but he didn't let go.

"Fire it, then." He whispered. "Kill me if you've got the guts." He grinned.

Keisha's stomach was a pit of fear. She spotted something on the side of the weapon she held, but her hand was shaking. She slowly lowered the gun...

Keisha brought the gun back up and fired a thin projectile directly at the boss. It was his turn to gasp as it sank into his thigh and he keeled over and collapsed.

Keisha stared at Liam, in awe of herself but was made aware of the immediate danger when the remaining men charged at them. Savannah released herself from the boss and attempted to judo-flip one guy. He was about to punch her in the gut when Keisha aimed her weapon at him and fired, knocking him out. She did the same with the man fighting Liam.

"Don't get me wrong, girl. You're amazing, but... but... you've killed three men." Savannah said, horrified.

Keisha grinned. "Nope."

She showed the gun to her friend and cousin. The label read 'tranquilizer.'

Liam and Savannah gave Keisha a big hug, and then they worked their way over to the big take in the corner, hoping the data on it would tell them how to send the creatures back to their stories.

There was only one page on the table long with some Greek letter blocks. It showed a placement of the letters in a certain manner.

Keisha, Savannah and Liam arranged them so on the floor before placing the creatures there. They looked at the tweens as though saying 'thank you,' before there was a crack and they were gone.

"And now, -" said Liam as they left the criminals to the police, "I intend to be on vacation."