One class after another, I sat quietly drawing in my small notebook, hardly listening to the teachers. Every once in a while I’d raise my hand so the teacher wouldn’t “suspect” anything. It was tenth period, and the day was going by slowly. Mr. Grant, my social studies teacher, explained life in the colonies after the Revolutionary War.






I reached in my back pocket and pulled out the little folded up picture of my girlfriend. I smiled to myself and just when I wasn’t paying attention, my teacher caught me.
“Mr. Jones, would you like to tell me the answer?” my head quickly snapped up, and I said,
“Huh? Uh, yeah. Is it the middle colonies?” The class broke out in a low laughter.
“Wrong. We have a test coming up. You should be paying attention instead of staring at photos.” He frowned, and turned back to the chalkboard. My friend next to me tapped me on the shoulder. I looked over, and Teddy Underwood sat, his red pen twirling in his hand and his leg hoisted up on the end of the desk.
“We still goin’ next period?” he asked in a hushed whisper. I nodded silently and turned back to the teacher, actually listening this time. Teddy and I go cliff diving every day after eleventh period just for recreational fun. All of the teachers know it, and even the principal knows. The only reason we get away with it is because my father’s a famous actor, and my mother is a CEO. I always looked forward to cliff diving with Teddy, but little did I know that I wouldn’t be cliff diving for a very long time.










A minute before the period ended, the phone rang. Mr. Grant answered it.
“Hello Mr. Grant speaking. Mhm? Alright, I’ll send them down immediately.” He hung up, and looked at me. “Jones, Underwood, you’re wanted at the main office. Apparently, one of your father’s friends are here.” I scooped up my books and followed Teddy out into the hall.
“What do you think he wants?” he asked. I shrugged.
“I have no clue. Guess we’ll find out won’t me?” We turned the corner, and stopped in front of the office door. I opened the door and stepped inside. The inside was pretty big for a school office. There was a long desk lining the wall, and a quiet sitting area with a water fountain. A tall white man stood next to Principal Garvey, who looked terrified but tried to hide it. He was pale, and looked stiff. The man next to him wore a golden colored pin-striped suit, with black glasses. He had a blank expression, but when he saw us come in, he smiled. But it wasn’t a nice “hello, welcome!” type of smile. It was cold, sadistic, and evil. I knew all of my father’s friends, and this wasn’t one of them. Something was wrong.
“Hello. Please sit down. We have much to discuss.” He said, and his voice almost sounded electronic. I sat down in one of the comfy chairs, Teddy following me. Principal Garvey turned around and briskly walked back to his office. I looked back at the man, and he was still smiling. No one else was here.

Just me, him, and Teddy.






He folded his hands behind his back and slowly paced as he talked.
“Alan Jones, you have been causing a slight disturbance lately,” he said. I realized he’d known my name, even though I hadn’t introduced myself. “Your recent cliff diving is most annoying to me, and I wish that you stop.” Who was this guy, and why was he telling me what to do? I stood up, annoyed.
“Who are you? And what do you want?” I asked angrily. The man suddenly stopped, and spun on his heel to look at me.
“You know exactly what we want.” His voice had suddenly changed; making it seem like more than one person was talking at the same time. I backed up a little, towards the door. His face was scrunched up from hatred and anger.
“Just give us what we want, and your death will be painless and quick.” He growled, a horrible sound coming from deep in his throat.
“What are you talking about?” Teddy asked. This time he roared, and the weirdest thing happened. He started to change. He crouched, and his skin melted into fur. His nails grew until they almost touched the ground, and his glasses dissolved into his face, making his eyes black and devilish. He roared again, and dropped on all fours. I blinked, and there was a huge golden lion, with spikes as fur, and nails and teeth like razor sharp kitchen knives. Something behind him moved, but it was too fast for me, and a second later I heard a loud whistling sound as something sped past my ear. I heard a loud thump, and I swung around to find a huge golden spike impaled in the door. That made something in my head click, and I kicked the door, its hinges cracking and the door itself breaking completely. I didn’t know where that extra strength came from, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I sprinted down the hall, Teddy close behind.
“What was that thing!?” he yelled.
“I don’t know, but we better get out of here before it eats us!” Back farther I heard the lion roar, and heavy pounding as it got ready to chase after us. Kids and teachers must have heard the lion, because they started wandering out into the hall. I started pushing through people, yelling, “Everyone outside NOW!!” Someone finally got the hint that something was wrong, because the fire alarm went off. Now the halls were flooded, and there were only a few minutes until the lion eventually caught up to us. Everyone got outside safely, out into the open field, including Teddy and I. But I knew we weren’t completely safe. The creature was still in the building, and so was Principal Garvey. There was silence, except for the sound of teachers giving instructions to the older students, and comforting the younger students. Mr. Macon, my English teacher, came up to me and said,
“What’s going on Alan?” I was breathing hard, but I said,
“There’s a lion in there.” I knew he wouldn’t believe me, but he looked around, and leaned toward me.
“What did it look like?” I thought back, and started to describe.
“It’s big, golden, and not any normal lion. It’s got-”
“Spikes as fur, and nails and teeth the size of your arm?” he said in a hushed tone. I looked at him, confused and surprised.
“How’d you know?”
“I’ve known about these things since I was a kid. I saw one once, thought I was just imagining it, until it took down my house and almost ate my sister.” I cringed at the thought of that, and I said,
“What’s it doing here?” Teddy joined the conversation.
“Well, when I first saw it, it wanted something. An artifact of some kind. But I never figured it out, and so I’ve been researching ever since. I haven’t found anything yet, partly because this thing isn’t on the internet. It’s not in any of the mythology books I’ve looked up either. It just appeared out of nowhere.”
“How we supposed to stop it?” he reached in his pocket and pulled out a ball point pen.
“This will help. Here, take it.”
“This is a pen Mr. Macon. How is this supposed to help anything?” he smiled.
“This isn’t just a pen. Take the cap off, you’ll see what I mean.” He handed me the pen, and I popped the cap off with my thumb. Immediately after, the pen changed. It grew until it was a long bronze sword. I jumped backwards and dropped it. It hit the ground with a soft thud. I backed away from it and said,
“What just happened?”
“Pick it up, you’re gonna need it if you wanna kill this thing.” Mr. Macon scooped it up and pushed it into my hand.
“Could this day get any weirder?” Just then the ground shook, and one of the school windows shattered as the huge lion jumped out of it. The kids started screaming, and soon they were all running around, in the opposite direction. I froze where I was, the sword still in my hand. The lion recognized me and charged at me. I flung myself to the right, narrowly missing the lion’s teeth. I sprang up, and turned around again to find the lion’s attention on Teddy this time. He stood there, his mouth open and his eyes wide. I noticed the opportunity I had, and I ran at the lion. Teddy saw me and spun around to run, but never got the chance. The lion roared and sprang on Teddy, tackling him to the ground. It raised one of its huge paws to claw his face, but I dove just in time, and rolled away as the sword impaled itself in the lion’s side. It roared in anger and turned toward me again, and this time I was defenseless. It crouched, getting ready to pounce on me. Something strange happened right then. As it got ready to leap, a chill went down my back, something in my brain clicked, and time slowed down. The lion was leaping through the air in slow motion. I looked around quickly to see what had happened, and noticed that everything around me was frozen. I slid to the left, and pulled the sword out of the lion while it was still in mid-air, and cringed as golden blood started to come out of the wound. I took this to my advantage, and as soon as the lion touched the ground, I swung the sword, full force, and sliced it’s head clean off. My perception of time went back to normal, and the lion disintegrated into a pile of dust. The only thing left of it was its spiky fur, which now looked like an overcoat. I helped Teddy up and walked over to the fur lying on the ground. I picked it up, and surprisingly, it weighed nothing in my hand. When I touched it, the spikes folded in and it got smaller until it was a golden key, with a pointed edge. I stuck it in my pocket, and turned to Teddy.
“Let’s get out of here. We have to figure out what that thing was.”
“We can’t just leave! We’re still technically in school you know.”
“Uh, Teddy? Look around man. All of the teachers and students are gone.” He spun around in one single movement, and frowned.
“What did they just all hop on a bus and leave?”
“I don’t know, but we don’t have time. Let’s go.” I started walking toward the street, not caring if anyone had seen what had just happened. Heading home, I knew this little interruption wouldn’t go un-heard of. Not for a long time.