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Description
We see two teenage girls, probably 18, sitting on a black leather couch, in the family room of one of their houses, playing video games. The girl on the left has long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was beautiful to the extent that if she wanted to, she could be a model. Hell, she probably was a model! The one of the right has shoulder length light brown hair and bright green eyes. She wasn't as beautiful as her friend, but she was still more beautiful than most.

"We must protect the elixir!" Amy let go of her video game controller and jumped up with her right arm high in the air and her left on her hip.
"Um…" when she suddenly jumped up and started screaming I had flinched in my chair; now I was just completely confused. "'We must protect the elixir?'" I put our game on pause so that both of us wouldn't loose.
"Yes! We must protect the elixir from evil!" she turned to me, and looked me in the eyes, only inches from my face. "Will you help me Kate?" I really didn't want to help her with her foolish game to get back some elixir, but she's my best friend, and it would probably be fun, more fun than this stupid video game that I've played only a million times.
I sighed, "Sure." I got up from my seat as she finally backed away from my face. I pulled my light brown hair out of my face and tucked it behind my right ear.
"So where is this elixir anyway?"
"Well," she paused. "Before we can go after the elixir, we have to meet Jacob first."
"Jacob? Who the hell is Jacob?!"
"Jacob is the threshold guardian." Oh god, I know where this is going. She's creating a hero journey for us. Man, why did Ms. Burkwood have to teach us that in English? "Come," she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the front door. "We must go see Jacob immediately." Once she had pulled me out of her house she took a right and led me on into a part of her neighborhood I had never seen before. The houses were falling apart and there was a strong smell of mold. Where are we? Finally we came to a house that looked like it was about to cave in on itself.
"Jacob!" Amy yelled at the top of her lungs. Why didn't she just knock or something?
"What?!" came the reply, who ever this is, he sounded like he just woke up.
"We've come to protect the elixir!" at this I heard a rustling inside and then the door flung open, revealing a young man, probably in his early twenties. He was tall, probably around 6 feet, he had spiked brown hair and it looked like he hadn't shaved in a while. He was still in his pj's, a pair of blue sweat pants and a white tank top.
"Alright, you have my attention." He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned on the door frame.
"We must know if we are ready for this mission!" she made a fist with her right hand, the hand that wasn't holding my arm, and held it high in the air.
"Hmmm," he looked Amy up and down, and then did the same to me. "I think you are." He paused. "But you must be tested first. Just to be sure." He disappeared inside for a moment then came back out and invited us in. Amy dragged me inside and I saw what a mess this guy's house was. There was stuff lying all over the place, what a slob!
"So what kind of test are you-" I never got to finish my question because just then Jacob had lunged at me with a wooden stick. I jumped out of the way of his attack and he tossed Amy a wooden stick, he tossed one to me as well.
"If you can defend your self well enough, you can continue on your journey to protect the elixir." He lunged at me again, and again I dodged it. Only this time I attacked back at him, hitting him in the stomach with the point of the stick.
"You're good." He grabbed his stomach as he straightened up a bit.
"I should be, I didn't take karate and self defense classes for eleven years for nothing." I attacked him again, hitting him in the shoulder which sent him to the ground. Before I could attack again he raised his hand.
"That's enough, you pass."
"Aw, but that was nothing." I whined. I don't know why I whined, but I did.
"What ever, Amy it's your turn." Amy walked over and prepared her self for the oncoming attack. Amy's "battle" went the same way mine did, Jacob gave in as soon as he had been knocked to the ground.
"You both pass. Go protect the elixir!" he saluted to us as we walked out of his house. I swear, I felt like I was in the freaking army!
"Goodbye Jacob! Thank you!" Amy waved goodbye to him as we walked farther into the falling apart part of Amy's neighborhood.
"What now?" I asked wondering what crazy scheme she had in store.
"Now we must keep walking until we reach McMain Manor."
"McMain manor?"
"Yeah, it's the mansion about a mile down the road."
"ok." For the next hour we walked and walked. It seemed like it would never end. At one point we had run into a group of really cute boys and I wanted to stop to talk to them, but Amy insisted that we must "over come the challenges that the evil lord sends us." I had no idea what she meant, but I agreed to walk past the cute guys. A little while later we passed by a small strip mall, again I wanted to stop but Amy pushed me forward. She wasn't going to allow any slacking on this game of hers.
Finally we reached this mansion she had been talking about. When I looked at it I saw a perfect horror movie scene where two unsuspecting teenagers enter a creepy looking house and never return because they were killed by some monster that lived inside.
"We have…to go in….there?" I asked, stuttering a little. I never did like dark houses.
"Yup!" she replied cheerfully. We walked up to the house and Amy knocked on the door. No answer. She raised her hand to the handle and opened the door. I looked in as the door flung open and hit the wall with a dull thud. The inside was dark and looked like it hadn't been redecorated since the medieval times.
Amy walked in a motioned for me to join her. I gulped then walked into the house. Flashes of my child hood came before my eyes. I shook them out of my head before I could remember them completely.
All I knew was that I wanted to get out of this house, and I wanted to get out now!
Something behind me fell to the ground as I shut the door, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. When I looked behind me I saw a rat chewing on a cracker with a broken vase beside him. I let out a sigh of relief and turned to face Amy.
She was staring at me like I was crazy. I wasn't one who was scared easily.
"What?" I snapped at her, not wanting to reveal anything about why I was scared. Suddenly a memory that I had tried so hard to suppress over the years, flashed in front of my eyes. I was six; hiding in some dark corner of a house I had lived in years ago. I saw someone coming towards me, but who was it? Then I remembered, it was the man who had broken into my house, thinking it would be an easy job. Break in, steal some stuff and then leave. But he had been wrong; my dad had put up a pretty decent fight before the burglar had struck him down with a hard punch to the jaw. My mother had been too scared and weak to do anything, so she hid in the master bath. But he sought her out, to teach her a lesson for her husband's behavior. I later found out that he had beat my mother bad enough to have her put in extensive care for two weeks.
After he was done with my mother he came after me, a small, helpless six year old girl. When he started to come after me, I kept backing up, until I hit the wall. I was trapped, with wall behind me, wall to my left, wall to my right and him in the front. I let out a scream as he raised his hand, which was balled into a fist, to hit me. But before he had the chance to even touch me, I heard two loud bangs from behind him; I stopped screaming as the loud bangs reached my ears. The burglar stopped in mid strike, gasped for air and then fell to the ground dead. I saw a crimson puddle start to form underneath his body. When I looked up from the gruesome sight before me, I saw my father standing a few feet away with a gun pointed to the now dead man, as if he might still be alive and my father would have to shoot him again.
"No one," he paused as he let his arm, and the gun, drop to his side. "Hurts my family!" he said this barely more than a whisper, but I still heard it. He walked over to me and cradled me in his arms, I hugged him so tightly that I thought I might be cutting off the circulation to his chest, but I refused to let go.
This memory had haunted my dreams for years, even when, after taking years of karate and self defense classes, I had reached such a advanced level in fighting that hardly anyone would be able to physically harm me. I snapped out of my thoughts when Amy started to say something.
"Nothing, nothing at all." She turned her back to be and walked up a near by stair case.
The longer we stayed in the house the more I felt my fear of the house slip away. Almost like my weak side was dying. I began to cheer up a little and really began to enjoy the antiqueness of the house.
Eventually we came to the kitchen. The kitchen was oddly modern. I watched as Amy walked over to the freezer, opened it and pulled out a bucket of ice cream.
"We have found the elixir!" I let my mouth drop open.
"That's the elixir?!" I pointed at the ice cream.
"Yup!" she shut the freezer door and headed for the front door.
"You've got to be kidding me! We went through all of that to get some ice cream?"
"Yeah, pretty much. But wasn't it fun?"
I sighed, "Yeah, I guess."
We began our long walk home and I began to think how this little game had changed me. I was no longer afraid of the dark and what it contained. I knew this was only a silly game, but it had still changed me. And I liked who I had become; I was braver and not as weak. I was stronger!
When we finally returned to her house, we put the ice cream in the freezer and continued our game of Monkey Kong; I won.

Description
We see two teenage girls, probably 18, sitting on a black leather couch, in the family room of one of their houses, playing video games. The girl on the left has long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was beautiful to the extent that if she wanted to, she could be a model. Hell, she probably was a model! The one of the right has shoulder length light brown hair and bright green eyes. She wasn't as beautiful as her friend, but she was still more beautiful than most.

"We must protect the elixir!" Amy let go of her video game controller and jumped up with her right arm high in the air and her left on her hip.
"Um…" when she suddenly jumped up and started screaming I had flinched in my chair; now I was just completely confused. "'We must protect the elixir?'" I put our game on pause so that both of us wouldn't loose.
"Yes! We must protect the elixir from evil!" she turned to me, and looked me in the eyes, only inches from my face. "Will you help me Kate?" I really didn't want to help her with her foolish game to get back some elixir, but she's my best friend, and it would probably be fun, more fun than this stupid video game that I've played only a million times.
I sighed, "Sure." I got up from my seat as she finally backed away from my face. I pulled my light brown hair out of my face and tucked it behind my right ear.
"So where is this elixir anyway?"
"Well," she paused. "Before we can go after the elixir, we have to meet Jacob first."
"Jacob? Who the hell is Jacob?!"
"Jacob is the threshold guardian." Oh god, I know where this is going. She's creating a hero journey for us. Man, why did Ms. Burkwood have to teach us that in English? "Come," she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the front door. "We must go see Jacob immediately." Once she had pulled me out of her house she took a right and led me on into a part of her neighborhood I had never seen before. The houses were falling apart and there was a strong smell of mold. Where are we? Finally we came to a house that looked like it was about to cave in on itself.
"Jacob!" Amy yelled at the top of her lungs. Why didn't she just knock or something?
"What?!" came the reply, who ever this is, he sounded like he just woke up.
"We've come to protect the elixir!" at this I heard a rustling inside and then the door flung open, revealing a young man, probably in his early twenties. He was tall, probably around 6 feet, he had spiked brown hair and it looked like he hadn't shaved in a while. He was still in his pj's, a pair of blue sweat pants and a white tank top.
"Alright, you have my attention." He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned on the door frame.
"We must know if we are ready for this mission!" she made a fist with her right hand, the hand that wasn't holding my arm, and held it high in the air.
"Hmmm," he looked Amy up and down, and then did the same to me. "I think you are." He paused. "But you must be tested first. Just to be sure." He disappeared inside for a moment then came back out and invited us in. Amy dragged me inside and I saw what a mess this guy's house was. There was stuff lying all over the place, what a slob!
"So what kind of test are you-" I never got to finish my question because just then Jacob had lunged at me with a wooden stick. I jumped out of the way of his attack and he tossed Amy a wooden stick, he tossed one to me as well.
"If you can defend your self well enough, you can continue on your journey to protect the elixir." He lunged at me again, and again I dodged it. Only this time I attacked back at him, hitting him in the stomach with the point of the stick.
"You're good." He grabbed his stomach as he straightened up a bit.
"I should be, I didn't take karate and self defense classes for eleven years for nothing." I attacked him again, hitting him in the shoulder which sent him to the ground. Before I could attack again he raised his hand.
"That's enough, you pass."
"Aw, but that was nothing." I whined. I don't know why I whined, but I did.
"What ever, Amy it's your turn." Amy walked over and prepared her self for the oncoming attack. Amy's "battle" went the same way mine did, Jacob gave in as soon as he had been knocked to the ground.
"You both pass. Go protect the elixir!" he saluted to us as we walked out of his house. I swear, I felt like I was in the freaking army!
"Goodbye Jacob! Thank you!" Amy waved goodbye to him as we walked farther into the falling apart part of Amy's neighborhood.
"What now?" I asked wondering what crazy scheme she had in store.
"Now we must keep walking until we reach McMain Manor."
"McMain manor?"
"Yeah, it's the mansion about a mile down the road."
"ok." For the next hour we walked and walked. It seemed like it would never end. At one point we had run into a group of really cute boys and I wanted to stop to talk to them, but Amy insisted that we must "over come the challenges that the evil lord sends us." I had no idea what she meant, but I agreed to walk past the cute guys. A little while later we passed by a small strip mall, again I wanted to stop but Amy pushed me forward. She wasn't going to allow any slacking on this game of hers.
Finally we reached this mansion she had been talking about. When I looked at it I saw a perfect horror movie scene where two unsuspecting teenagers enter a creepy looking house and never return because they were killed by some monster that lived inside.
"We have…to go in….there?" I asked, stuttering a little. I never did like dark houses.
"Yup!" she replied cheerfully. We walked up to the house and Amy knocked on the door. No answer. She raised her hand to the handle and opened the door. I looked in as the door flung open and hit the wall with a dull thud. The inside was dark and looked like it hadn't been redecorated since the medieval times.
Amy walked in a motioned for me to join her. I gulped then walked into the house. Flashes of my child hood came before my eyes. I shook them out of my head before I could remember them completely.
All I knew was that I wanted to get out of this house, and I wanted to get out now!
Something behind me fell to the ground as I shut the door, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. When I looked behind me I saw a rat chewing on a cracker with a broken vase beside him. I let out a sigh of relief and turned to face Amy.
She was staring at me like I was crazy. I wasn't one who was scared easily.
"What?" I snapped at her, not wanting to reveal anything about why I was scared. Suddenly a memory that I had tried so hard to suppress over the years, flashed in front of my eyes. I was six; hiding in some dark corner of a house I had lived in years ago. I saw someone coming towards me, but who was it? Then I remembered, it was the man who had broken into my house, thinking it would be an easy job. Break in, steal some stuff and then leave. But he had been wrong; my dad had put up a pretty decent fight before the burglar had struck him down with a hard punch to the jaw. My mother had been too scared and weak to do anything, so she hid in the master bath. But he sought her out, to teach her a lesson for her husband's behavior. I later found out that he had beat my mother bad enough to have her put in extensive care for two weeks.
After he was done with my mother he came after me, a small, helpless six year old girl. When he started to come after me, I kept backing up, until I hit the wall. I was trapped, with wall behind me, wall to my left, wall to my right and him in the front. I let out a scream as he raised his hand, which was balled into a fist, to hit me. But before he had the chance to even touch me, I heard two loud bangs from behind him; I stopped screaming as the loud bangs reached my ears. The burglar stopped in mid strike, gasped for air and then fell to the ground dead. I saw a crimson puddle start to form underneath his body. When I looked up from the gruesome sight before me, I saw my father standing a few feet away with a gun pointed to the now dead man, as if he might still be alive and my father would have to shoot him again.
"No one," he paused as he let his arm, and the gun, drop to his side. "Hurts my family!" he said this barely more than a whisper, but I still heard it. He walked over to me and cradled me in his arms, I hugged him so tightly that I thought I might be cutting off the circulation to his chest, but I refused to let go.
This memory had haunted my dreams for years, even when, after taking years of karate and self defense classes, I had reached such a advanced level in fighting that hardly anyone would be able to physically harm me. I snapped out of my thoughts when Amy started to say something.
"Nothing, nothing at all." She turned her back to be and walked up a near by stair case.
The longer we stayed in the house the more I felt my fear of the house slip away. Almost like my weak side was dying. I began to cheer up a little and really began to enjoy the antiqueness of the house.
Eventually we came to the kitchen. The kitchen was oddly modern. I watched as Amy walked over to the freezer, opened it and pulled out a bucket of ice cream.
"We have found the elixir!" I let my mouth drop open.
"That's the elixir?!" I pointed at the ice cream.
"Yup!" she shut the freezer door and headed for the front door.
"You've got to be kidding me! We went through all of that to get some ice cream?"
"Yeah, pretty much. But wasn't it fun?"
I sighed, "Yeah, I guess."
We began our long walk home and I began to think how this little game had changed me. I was no longer afraid of the dark and what it contained. I knew this was only a silly game, but it had still changed me. And I liked who I had become; I was braver and not as weak. I was stronger!
When we finally returned to her house, we put the ice cream in the freezer and continued our game of Monkey Kong; I won.