Prologue
Derek Monroe woke up like any other day; his alarm began its annoingly repetitive buzzing, which he shut off as soon as he found the energy to raise his arm, he dragged himself out of bed and grabbed a fresh set of school clothes before taking them to the bathroom and piling them ont he closed toilet seat. He then took off the top he'd worn to bed and turned ont he shower to let it heat up before stepping inside. As he waited, he looked at himself in the mirror above the sink. Sixteen years old and nowhere near as good looking as he'd want. He was a bit heavier than he wanted but in the last few months, he'd managed to replace some of the fat with muscle although it wasn't as obvious as he wanted. His long, dark brown hair was naturally greasy and no kind of shampoo could make it anything else. He had a fairly average-looking face, not pretty by any means but not ugly, either. He was fairly tall, standing at just over six foot and still growing. He was rather pale, a result of living in the dreary city of Aberdeen for most of his life and he didn't feel like painting himself orange like most of the girls at school did. Derek had no wish to put on a mask just to look pretty. In honesty, he didn't really care what anyone thought of him. He spent most of his time indoors, playing computer games and reading fantasy novels whereas everyone else was out, going to parties, drinking alcohol and a few were even doing drugs. Derek didn't want any of that, he just wanted to be a normal guy, despite the fact that he had no idea what to do with his life.
Fifteen minutes later, Derek walked out of the bathroom and dumped his dirty clothing into the basket by the door and made his way downstairs, tying his hair back into a ponytail as he did. The house was empty, as it usually was at this time so he poured himself a bowl of cereal and quickly gulped it down, already running a little late. He grabbed his bag from beside the front door and swung it over his shoulder before leaving the house, locking the door and beginning the fifteen minute walk to Grammar High School. As usual, the streets had an assortment of little kids in colourful sweaters going to primary school and teenagers in shirts and blazers going to high school. Normal was good. Derek liked normal. As boring as it could be, he liked things the way they were, he didn't like the thought of actually being in one of the worlds he read about. A world of dragons and vampires, magic and mystery, where the good guys always triumph over evil despite the hardships thrown their way. As much as he liked playing in and reading about those worlds, he had no wish to be running for his life when a werewolf was about to tear him to shreds. He didn't think he'd have the guts or heart to live in that wo-
Suddenly, Derek stopped. He frowned slightly and turned his head to look down an alleyway. The alley was dark, mainly because it was such a small space but also because the sun was still fairly low in the sky due to it being the height of winter. Derek squinted and saw two figures in the shadows, standing in a strange manner. He began to walk forward, towards the two people. They could have been muggers, he could be walking to his death but the closer he got, the more of them he made out. The first figure was a girl, fairly young, maybe late teens or early twenties. She was wearing a dark green shirt with a light leather jacket which was dark grey. Her legs were half covered by a dark green skirt which went to just below her knees. She wore a pair of high, sand-coloured boots. The second figure was a man, looking to be in his late twenties and wearing a long black coat, a wide brimmed hat and what looked like a shirt and tie underneath the coat. Their clothes looked too expensive to be muggers and it didn't look like they had any weapons on them. Derek stopped and tilted his head slightly. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered with anything like this but these two seemed... odd. Like they were supposed to not be there. Suddenly, there girl's eyes snapped to Derek.
"Get out of the way, you idiot!" She snapped and suddenly dashed forward, moving faster than Derek thought was possible. He was shoved aside, seeing a flash of grey as the breath whooshing out of his lungs as he hit the brick wall and dropped to the ground.
"Let's get out of here, Jane." The man said there was the sound of quickening footsteps before silence. Derek groaned and tried to push himself up, struggling slightly from what felt like a large bruise on his shoulder. That girl was far stronger than she looked. He managed to push himself around until he was sitting with his back against the wall. He looked around but the girl - Jane - and the man had vanished. All that was left was what looked to be a pile of sawdust near the opening of the alley.
How did that get there?
